Forgotten Humanity
by Sketchgirl2296
Summary: The world hasn't been same since the outbreak, it's been Laura and her brother Brent on their own for a while till coming across the Saviors. About five years later everything seemed normal again, till unpredicted turn of events happen causing Laura to deal with losing loved ones, doubts about Sanctuary and having unexplained feelings for Negans right hand man.
1. The beginning

_**(Laura's POV)**_

It happened out of nowhere, no one could figure out where it came from or what was the cause of everyone getting sick.

First it happened in Africa then made its way to New York, slowly began to spread down each corner of America and then what I assume the world.

I was terrified out of my mind about it reaching to our town, Brent said that everythings going to be ok, that mom and Dad would make sure no one would get sick.

We made plans to pack up and make travel to the refugee camp that was being held about five hours away on the other side of the city.

Throughout getting stuff that we would need for travel and packed I noticed that dad seemed different , he didn't have as much energy to do stuff like he used to.

I would ask him if he was alright and he'd just tell me to not worry about him and that its just old age catching up to him.

Brent and I know our father best, he might be in his early forties but he's healthy as a bull and acts like he's still in his twenties.

Even mom began to notice the strangeness in his behavior and how he was starting to look under the weather.

_"Honey you're burning up..we need to get you to the hospital." I heard her exclaim through my bedroom wall, " Sweetie I'll be fine, just get some rest for me, I'll wake you and the kids up first thing in the morning." he said to her while coughing a bit._

That night before going to bed I was packing up the last item in my suitcase when he came into my room, looking over he seemed to look exhausted and sweaty like he had ran a marathon.

"Hey dad, I have everything ready for tomorrow." I said, he nodded and rubbed the back of his head.

"Good..good. Listen, I know what's going on right now is hard for you and me your mother and I never thought that something like this would happen you kids." he said, walking over he sat himself on my bed.

Reaching over I touched his hand and squeezed it, just me touch his hand I could feel that he was strangely warm but I didn't bother to comment on it.

"I know dad, we're all scared but we have each other to make it through this." I said with a smile, the look in his eyes didn't match his smile that he gave to me.

Out of nowhere he reached out and pulled me into his arms in a bear hug, slowly I wrapped my arms around him.

"No matter what happens, just know that I love you kids and your mother with all my heart and soul. Ok?" he said, I could hear him sniffling and feel a kiss being placed on the top of my head.

We sat there for what seemed liked forever till he left and went down the hall, I could hear him talking to Brent for awhile and then finally headed back to his room and go to bed.

I layed in bed trying to sleep but what my dad said felt strange to me, of course he always says he loved us, but this time it felt like it'll be the last he'll ever say it.

Reaching over to my phone I set my alarm to wake up bright an early for tomorrow and tried going to sleep.

It didn't seemed like I was asleep for that long when something loud hit against the other side of my bedroom wall some me up, startled I sat up and tried listening for it again to make sure I wasn't just imagining things.

It happened again and I realized it was from my parents room, worried I slipped on my pajama pants and made it outside the hallway to their bedroom.

Hesitant I knocked on it,"Mom...dad..everything alright?",I asked but there was no response.

Knocking again I waited a good second before opening the door, it was pitch dark inside since the sun hasn't rised yet.

Feeling for the light switch I started smelling something foul and grotesque for some reason, when I felt the nub of the switch touch my fingers I quickly flipped it up to brighten up the room.

To my confusion I saw that their bed was empty, stepping closer inside I looked over the other side to see no one there either.

Then a sudden bang came from their private bathroom door startling me, nervously I walked over and knocked on the it.

"Hey...is everything ok you guys..Dad..mom?" I asked now getting scared, a gargling noise sounded like it was coming from my dad.

He was probably throwing up and mom was in there to help, worried I opened up the door wanting to make sure that he was alright.

"Mom is Dad o..." I couldn't even finish what I wanted to say when looking inside and witnessing what was going on behind this closed door.

My dad was hunched over my moms body with his hands digging inside her ripped open stomach and organs displayed across the bathroom tile floor. When he turned around I covered my mouth in disgust and horror, his eyes that were once hazel are now a green sick looking color and his skin looked pale.

"D..dad..what are you doing?" I managed to get out , when he began to stand up I felt myself step back from the door.

I couldn't believe what I was looking at, my father didn't look like the man I know and love. Shaking my head I tried wake myself from this insane nightmare, when I opened my eyes back up he still looked the same while making his way towards me.

The look on his face was carnal rage, shaking I tried getting him to stop in his tracks.

"Dad...what did you do...why did.. Dad just stop." I pleaded while trying to not panic, but when he began moving quicker towards me I started to move back franticly.

Not even paying attention to what's behind I tried to turn around and make a break for it out the door but I stumbled over mom and dads suit cases and fell down on the floor.

Landing on my side I turned to get up but screamed when he launched himself on top of me, using my feet and arms I tried pushing him. His hands were clawing at my face and teeth were snarling with blood dripping from its edges, I cried and yelled for him to stop.

"Dad stop! Daddy please snap out of it!" I cried while using all the strength I could muster to get him off.

Hearing loud footsteps coming down the hall I looked up at the door to see Brent coming inyo view and looking over at us in panic.

"Dad what are you doing?!" he yelled while rushing over to shove him off me, while he was down I felt Brent quickly pull me up and making sure I was fine.

"Are you ok?", "Yeah I'm fine, Brent!" I screamed while grabbing onto his arm, we both saw dad getting back up to his feet and charging at us.

"Laura move into the hallway now!" he said while pushing me outside the room, we both ran out and down the hallway towards his bedroom.

Hearing the loud footsteps of our dad behind us, when we made it there Brent made sure I was all the way in and tried shutting the door behind us.

But dad hit against the door and tried to get inside, terrified I tried help Brent close it but dad grabbed at the sleeve of my shirt and started tearing at it almost reaching my skin.

"Laura grab my gun in the closet!", he yelled, I stared at him with tears in my eyes to what he was resorting to.

"Brent wait we..can't " I tried begging, before he could try saying anything the door almost came off the hinges when dad hit against it with all his might.

"Get it now!" he screamed, running I opened the closet door and reached up to the shoe box on the wall shelf.

Grabbing it I opened and pulled out his Smith Weston pistol and a bag of bullets.

Wtih trembling hands I tried loading it as fast as I could, but the sound of the door busting down made me scream and Brent fall back.

The door fell on top of him and Dad came into the room and only saw me instead , snarling he began running towards me.

"Daddy please stop!" I cried while backing away towards the wall and dropping the gun, he only came within an inch of me till Brent grabbed him from behind and hauled him back.

"Brent!" I yelled, he was holding dad in a head lock and used his strength to keep him there, all the while dad was tryingg to grab behind and bite his arm.

"Laura shoot him!" he said while trying to hold against dads struggle, I looked down at the gun and picked it up.

There was about three bullets in, staring at it and then looking at dad I began to cry.

"Brent please..I can't do that..we can't..." I shook my head as tears streamed from my eyes.

"We have no choice, this isn't dad anymore!" Brent yelled in frustration and tears seeping through his eyes.

"Do it!" he ordered for the last time, I knew that there wasn't any other choice

Crying I pointed the gun at Dad and aimed for his face, my heart was aching in pain at what I was about to do.

The man that was looking at me in hunger and carnal rage wasn't my father anymore on the inside, but the outside made so much harder for me.

"When I tell you Brent...move." I said with a croaked voice, shaking his head he waited for the signal.

Grasping the gun I readied myself and put my finger on the trigger, locking right onto the middle of his face.

"Now!" I yelled, causing Brentto let go of dad and move out the way, before he could come running towards me I pulled the trigger repeatedly till all three of the bullets hit him through the head.

His body fell to the floor in slow motion as I watched in horror and realization as to what I done, my hands were shaking out of control causing the gun to fall out of them.

Brent stood up and looked over at dad in grief and pain, then he looked over to see me in a fit of hysteria.

I was breathing out of control and body trembling, when I tried walking over to dads body he pulled me away.

"Laura no, don't touch him." he said while pulling me close and out of his room.

"Brent we..killed..I shot...why.  
Why did this happen!?" I sobbed while clinging onto his arms.

"I don't know..but I need to get us out of here..where's mom?" he asked, my eyes looked up at him in distraught, he didn't notice where she was back in the room.

"She's dead...", I said weakly, he eyes widened with fear to those words.

"No..no no she can't be...what about the..." Brent tried to say but couldn't get out, I grabbed onto his hands and lead us back to our parents room.

I only went half way inside and then pointed to the slightly opened bathroom door, standing there I watched as he made his way inside.

Using his bare foot he pushed the door fully open, when his eyes caught what was inside he pulled back and almost hurled.

"Oh God..oh God please no!" Brent groaned while covering his mouth, I hugged myself as the tears rolled down my face as I watched him try not fall apart.

He tried to look away from moms lifeless and torn body, her stomach was ripped apart and empty, showing the unbearable truth of what our father had done.

Quickly he pulled off the sheets from their bed and covered it over her,not being able to handle the sight of her any longer.

I walked over to pull him away but he turned around and held me in a death grip hug, his face buried into the nape of my hair and tears hitting against my skin.

Not being able to hold it anymore I allowed myself to break down in his arm, burying my face into the depth of his chest and sobbed in agony.

Losing the the ability to stand I felt us both fall ground, my hands gripped at the back of his shirt.

"What are...what are gonna do now" I asked in between hyperventliated sobs, Brent rubbed the back of my hair in attempt to calm me down.

"I don't know...we have to go to the refugee camp now before things get worse over here." he said then pulled away from me, I sat there staring at the lump of blood seeped sheets on the floor in the bathroom.

_Why..why please God let this be a bad dream_.

Hearing Brent coming back I saw him carrying my back pack and his duffle bag in hand while he was dressed and ready to go.

"Here's your stuff, if you wanna change I'll step in the hall.." he said, I stared at him for a moment till nodding my head for him to step out.

Doing that he went down the hall and back to his room, probably to retrieve his gun no doubt.

Trembling like a leaf I peeled off the blood stained shirt and pajama pants off me and put on a blue denim pants and grey shirt, lastly putting on my brown work boots.

"I'm done.." I called out weakly, stepping back inside Brent handed me his metal baseball bat while stuffing the pistol into his front pocket.

Before he could step out the room I grabbed onto end of this jacket, Brent turned back to look at my pained red eyes.

"We can't leave them like this Brent." I said while looking back at moms body, I could feel him pull his arm away.

"There's nothing we can do Laura...we have to .." before he could finish his sentence I cut him off in disheartened anger.

"I'm not leaving them here like this, they're our parents!" I yelled while wiping at the tears in my eyes, he didn't say anything but just looked down at the floor.

With a heavy sigh Brent dropped his duffle bag and walked right pass me to the private bathroom.

"Grab a shovel from the garage and start digging in the back,..I'll bring Mom..and Dad down." he said while trying not to cry, obeying him I went out the hall and down stairs to the garage.

It took about a half hour to fully dig up two holes for their bodies, Brent brought moms body down first with a new covered sheet wrapped around her body.

He had me go bring down their king blanket from the room to use for covering up dads body, while retrieving it from the room I made it half way down the stairs when I heard Brent struggling in his room.

Walking back over I stood at the door and saw him trying to haul dads body up from his arms and shoulders, through his struggled groans tears were coming from his eyes.

Despite him trying to be the strong one and look out for what was best for us he was just as heart brokened as I was.

Stepping in I walked over towards the other end of dad and began lifting his legs and thighs up in both my arms.

Brent looked at me and as I did him, we didn't have to say anything with what we were feeling right now, it was plastered all over our faces.

After we both got dad down the stairs and outside I spread the blanket inside the hole for dad, Brent kept his up right while trying not to get any of his blood on him or near his face.

"Alright..bring him over." I said, he dragged his body over to me.

We both gently lowered him into the hole, mom was already in the hole burried next to his. Wrapping the blanket around him, Brent waited for me to finish so he can fill up the hole.

Stepping to the side I watched as he filled up the grave, there were no words to describe to what we were feeling right now, our family was gone and there was nothing to change fix that.

Afterwards me and him stood by each other and looked down at the unmarked graves, my hand found its way to Brents and squeezed onto it tight.

I was trying to utter out what I wanted to say for them but it wouldn't come out from behind the huge lump in my throat, remembering the words my dad told me last night really sunk into my heart.

"I love you too dad..mom..Lilly" I said while keeping my best to contain my sobs, Brent pulled me into his arms and held me close to his side.

We stood there for a few more minutes in deep grief and thought on what is to become of us now.

"I'll grab the bags while you get the car...its going to be a long ride to the refugee camp." Brent said.


	2. Rough road ahead

(_**Normal POV)**_

Brent ooked ahead of the car deserted road ahead of them, trying to drive the truck through all this would be a real pain in the ass.

Groaning he stomped over to the truck and leaned over against the passenger side where Laura was sleeping, tapping on the window she woke up startled the realized that it was him.

Rolling down the window she rubbed out the tiredness from her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked in mid-yawn, watching as he pointed out ahead of them.

"These cars go on till the edge of the highway, there's now way the truck can make it through or around them." he said, Laura looked out the window and saw what he was talking about

"Fucking shit man...what do we do now?" she asked, Brentreached into the back seats and grabbed their bags with a sigh I'm frustration.

"Looks like we're gonna have to walk it." he stated while handing out her bag, Laura looked at him like he was a mad man for even suggesting they go on foot.

"Are you out of your fucking mind... We can't go out on foot. Did you see what was out there when we drove passed the.." she was trying to say in a fit of panic till Brent cut her off.

"Laura..we'll be fine, I won't let anything happen to you. We look out for each others ?" he said while putting on a genuine smile, hestiantly she climbed out the truck and walked over to him while grabbing her bag.

"Ok.." she said, gripping onto the baseball bat she followed close behome him as they started walking down the road.

Its been almost eight days since they left town, not going to sugar anything but its been fucked up these past couple.

The refugee camp shouldn't be to far from here, they could've gotten here sooner if it wasn't for the over crowded people trying to leave the city and crossing paths with those things.

From what Laura was told they were called Runners or walkers, for some reason they didn't seem like the zombies that she'd seen on tv or in movies.

They were a lot more faster and feed frenzy raged, none of this made sense as to how something that was thought of to be fiction was actually happening in real life.

"Hey..you know what this reminds me of?" Laura asked Brent, he glanced back to her.

"What's that?" he asked, she fiddled with the string of her her hoodie.

"The game you used to play all the time." she said, Brent really thought about it and then noticed that she had a point.

"Fuck it kind of does, only your not immune to the virus and I'm not a old man trying to take you to a group of people to find a cure." he joked causing both of them to laugh.

Laura pulled out her cellphone and tried seeing if she could get a signal. Looking at the screen she groaned when it only showed an X mark across the bar signal.

"You're not gonna find a signal out here squirt, the satilite connection is shut down." Brent said hearing her pacing back and forth behind him as they walked.

"It wouldn't hurt to try searching and stop calling me that you ass." Laura grumbled in annoyance, she heard a chuckle come from him and couldn't help but smirk.

They continued down the road for what felt like hours, luckily Laura's music app still works without Wi-Fi and she played her favorite playlist.

Although Brent often complained about some of the songs that were played, but it was better than listening to the dead silence around them.

It was almost sunset when Brent saw a wall barrier up ahead, feeling ecstatic he shook Laura's shoulder and pointed at it.

"Laura look, there it fucking made it!" he exclaimed, Laura screamed with joy and began running towards the barrier.

Both of them ran fast as they could to the wall, they screamed for the people to know they were outside the wall.

"Hey..hey can anyone hear us!?" Laura yelled, David tried throwing rocks across the wall for anyone to notice.

This last for about a minute till they both started to realize that there was no noise coming from behind the wall, now that Brent really looked around. He noticed that there was no one guarding outside the barrier.

"This doesn't seem right...shouldn't there be some kind of security or even a damn gate?" Laura questioned, Brent looked down both ways of where the wall was going and noticed that there was a portion of it knocked down.

"Hey...there's a opening over right there..come on." he said while grabbing onto Laura's hand and guiding them over.

When they reached towards the opening the first thing they saw that what appeared to be a army tank that was the main culprite of the hole,helping each other over the huge vehicle Laura started to look at their new surroundings.

The place looked completely deserted, no one was even here, no army, civilians, nothing.

"Brent..it doesn't look like no one's even here.." she stated, he looked around them in confusion.

"It doesn't make any sense...lets look around and see if we can find anyone." he said then began walking ahead of Laura, she followed behind while grabbing at the metal bat that was tucked in the belt loop of her jeans.

They searched down through what looked to be an accommodation tent. Everything was scattered all over, resource bins and medical supplies.

"Aye see if we can find anything useful and something to eat." Brent ordered, the idea of finally finding food made Laura's stomach grumble in pain.

Its been almost three days since they've eaten their last supply of rations, if it wasn't for her moral code of not eating meat she could eat a squirrel right about now.

Rummaging through all the bins Brent cursed in aggravation when there wasn't no sign of any food, on the plus side there was enough medical supplements and first aid kits to last them for quite awhile in case of emergency.

Laura was trying to lift up a huge metal storage self, there appeared to be something that looked like food underneath.

"Fucking shit, this thing weighs a ton..Brent mind giving me a hand?" she groaned in obvious need of assitance, chuckling at her struggle Brent jogged right over and began lifting up the other side.

"There hold this so I can grab the bag..there it is almost.."Laura said while bending down to reach for the bag, tilting her head to look fully underneath the self she saw something that made her blood turn cold.

Brent watched as Laura scream and scramble away from him, confused he looked down at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked but before she could even get a single word out something latched at the leg of his pants.

Both of them screamed in fright as a walker tried pulling Brents leg to get him close to it, he quickly let go of the self without realizing that that his foot was sticking to far inside where it hit the ground.

When letting go it automatically landed right on his ankle, causing him to yell in pain and hit the ground.

Laura rushed over to try getting the self off his ankle when the walkers hand lashed out through the opening and grab at her, panicking she reacted and tried smashing at his hands only to miss a bunch of times with bad aiming.

"Get the Fuck back !" she screamed while trying to hit it, but then was startled when the sound of gun fire erupted from beside her.

Looking down to see that Brents gun was smoking as to him shooting at the walker, his face was contorted in pain bringing Laura back out of her startled trance.

"Shitt..shit hold on." she said while using the all strength in her petite body to lift up the storage self.

It took about three times for her to finally manage to lift it up enough for Brentto pull his ankle out from underneath.

"Mother fucking...gah.." he hissed in pain, Laura knelt down to examine the damage that was done.

When lifting up the end of his pants as gently as possible she gasped to see that the sharp edging of the self had cut deep into his ankle.

"Oh fuck.." She whispered, Brent tried touching at it but only cause more pain then needed.

"Ahh fuck...Laura hand me the first aid you found..quickly." he demanded hastly, obeying Laura opened her bag and pulled out the kit to hand to him.

Brent made quick hast to pour out the all the contents next to him, finding the peroxide and gauze to wrap around his ankle.

"Laura I need you to pour this shit over my wound, and don't stop till its all gone." he orders while handing her the bottle, hesitantly she grabbed it out of his hand while Brent clenched his thigh to prepare for the pain.

"Ok...just please don't move to much" she said before opening the bottle cap and quickly pouring the peroxide over the wound.

Groaning through clenched teeth Brent tried to not move his leg so much from how fucking bad it hurt, his other hand hit against the ground to go with pain.

Until there was a final drop from the content Laura began to wrap the gauze over the wound to cover the cleaned stinging wound.

"Fucking shit that hurt." Brent huffed with a cracked smile, Laura tried not to laugh at his attempt to make this situation humorous.

They both smirked at each other till a sound captured their attention, from outside the tent. Laura looked at the opening of the tent and then at Brent, she appeared to be nervous from the sudden unsettling feel in the air.

_"What was that?...", _she questioned knowing that there was no way that he would even have an answer for.

"_Hell if I know...take a peek and see..don't make a noise."_ Brent whispered, shaking her head Laura tip toed over everything on the floor and quietly made her was over to opened curtain entrance.

Slowly she leaned over to look out into the open,there was nothing from the right corner of her eye.

But when she slightly looked over to the left she had to cover her mouth from gasping when there were about four of those things wandering just outside the tent.

Trying not to freak out Laura moved quietly and fast back over to Brent, he saw how panicked she looked.

"_There's more of those things outside." _she warned in a shaken tone,"_How many of them are there_?" he asked.

"_I..I don't know I could only see about four or five of them." _Laura said getting more scared, Brent tried to think of something quick.

The hole from where they came in from wasn't that far away from the tent, if they could somehow make it around those things without detection they would be alright.

Though the main problem was that he couldn't walk on his own with the injured ankle, using his good leg to stand up he held onto Laura's arm for her to grab him.

"We're going to have to try going around them and go straight for the broken barrier. But I need your help to walk.." Brent said through gritted teeth with the stinging pain coming from wound.

Shaking her head Laura wrapped her brothers arm over her shoulder and placed her left arm around his waist, quietly and not to fast for her to lose Brents balance they made their way to the other side of the tent.

Brent peeked through the closed curtain to see if there was any sign of them, nodding his head Laura knew that it was clear to go.

Pushing through the curtain Laura held onto him tightly while trying to not make any noise to draw attention towards them.

The sky was almost dark, making this nearly harder than it needed to be. Thankfully there was some lights that hung on each corner of the camp to aluminate some guidance.

Laura listened out and waited to see if Brent detected if those things were near them, getting the ok thumb she continued onward. Making sure to not go so far into the open area.

_"There it Is...if you can help me get over the tank we're good out of here." _Brent whispered, nodding in agreement Laura made hast towards the opening way.

They managed to make it a few get away when one of those things popped out at them from the right, Laura screamed and tried pulling Brentaway from it.

It looked at both of them and snarled while trying to lash out , Brent reached down and pulled his gun out.

Managing to shoot at the thing but wasting about four of his bullets and leaving him two left.

"We have to move..now." Laura stated while trying to rush them.

"Laura watch out!"Brent yelled when another one came up from beside her, quickly Laura let go of him to retract her bat and smash it across the things head.

When hearing its neck snap she looked back to see Brent on the floor, cursing at her action she quickly began pulling him back up.

"Shit I'm sorry... Oh my God!" she screamed to realizing that more of those things were coming up behind them, they were probably drawn to the sound of his gun going off.

" Fuck move Laura move!" Brent yelled while using all his strength to go with her fast movevents towards the opening.

When they made it to the end of the tank Laura tried helping Brent up to climb over, but the heaviness of his weight wasn't helping her at all.

Cursing she panicked when glancing back to seeing those things drawing closer, thinking quickly she figured out how a way for him to get across.

"Crawl underneath to get over...do it now!" she yelled when he looked at her in confusion, cursing under his breath Brent moved down to ground and start crawling underneath the tank in fast movements.

Laura was about to do the same when feeling the presence of a walker coming up from behind, thinking fast she swung the bat and hit it across the face.

When it fell to ground she realized that those things were getting closer than expected, thinking quickly she climbed on top of the the tank and moved fast over the other side of the wall.

Jumping off to the ground she rushed down underneath the tank to pull out Brent fast as possible away from those things, his hands latched onto hers as she dragged him out and onto the side of the road.

"Jesus fuck..that was close." he coughed out through wanted breath, Laura was about to add onto that comment when looking up to see that those fuckers were climbing over the tank and rushing over towards them.

"Brent watch out!" she yelled pushing his out the way, her bat collided with the things face but she was pushed down to the ground along with it on top.

Brent pulled out his gun to shoot at it but then heard more of those thing climbing over the tank, not knowing what to do he used his first bullet to shoot the thing off Laura.

She pushed its body off and made her over to him, Brent aimed his gun at the herd of them climbing over, both of them were terrified of not knowing what to do next.

Panic started coming over Laura while also beginning to feel light headed.

_Please Lord don't let this be how we ends...Brent prayed._

Both of them weren't prepared for those things to charge at them when a sudden brightness of lights came from behind.

Before neither of them could look back a thunderous sound of gun fire erupted ,Brent reacted fast by pulling Laura down and covering his body over to shield hers from the bullets flying above them.

Laura eyes were closed and ears rang with the endless rounds, until finally the air went quiet.

Neither one of them looked up to see if it was finally over, that is when the sound of car doors opening and closing caught their attention.

"Ho-ly shit..that was a fucking herd of those things!" a mans voice exclaimed,Brent pulled off of Laura and look up to see who helped them.

"Jesus Christ, both your asses sure are lucky we came just in time other wise you'd be as God damn meal." the same mans voice boasted out loud again.

Laura sat herself up beside Brentto see a group of what appeared to be five or six men coming out two trucks.

One of them was tall looking with a receding hair line and a porn man mustache, he had on a grey pladed button up shirt with dark denim pants and brown chocolate boots.

The other guy standing beside him was a bit shorter than him appeared to looked more builtwise, he had on a black leather jacket and blue jeans along with grey boots to complete the attire.

"Th..thanks.. Who ever you guys are." Laura managed to say through her dry mouth, her head was starting to get dizzy and she was feeling a bit fatigued.

"No need to thank us sweetheart...what in the Gods name are you two kids doing out here by yourselves anyway." the guy with the leather jacket asked while helping Brent up on his feet.

The other one reached out his hand to gelp Laura up, generously she took it and pulled herself up to stand up till suddenly it felt everything moving to fast.

"We were..Laura are you...Laura!" Brent yelled when shenbegan to faint and fall backwards, before she could hit the ground someone caught her just in time.

_"Man she doesn't look to good...Simon take her to the back of the truck, Dwight help the kid walk to the passenger side and move out before anymore those things come out!" _she heard the mans muffled voice ordered through her blurred mind, trying looking for Brent but her vision was growing dark.

"Wait... Brent..Don't leave me..." she called out before slipping into darkness.


	3. Meeting Negan

**_(Lauras POV)_**

I didn't know what was happening, it's as if I was awake but I couldn't function my body. Everything faded in and out as the truck moved from underneath me.

Only being able to to move my eyes I could make out a persons silhouette sitting right beside me, I tried reaching my hand out to them.

"We..were are you taking us?..." I managed to ask out loud, I couldn't make out what the person looked like but I felt his callosuled hand wrap around mine.

"Hang in there Angel...We're almost there."that's all what I was able to hear before slipping away again.

It seemed liked forever till my body was beginning to wake myself up, the cause of unwanted bright lights irritated my eyes when they slowly opened.

Groaning I rubbed at my face to get myself more awake, it felt like I got hit by a fucking semi truck.

Finally my eyes got adjusted to the lighting, peering through my fingers looked down to see I was laying in a bed.

Confused I sat up to look at my surroundings, this place looked like a infirmary office.

To the medical sink and equipment on the other end of the room and all the healthy posters hanging on the wall.

Searching for my stuff I saw it was placed along the wall on the other side of the room.

_Where the hell am I_?

Rubbing my hands through my hair I noticed that something smelled good, glancing over to the table right next to me was a tray of food.

Instantly when my eyes locked in on the steamy bowl of what looked like cream potato soup my stomach did a somersault, without hesitating I went over and latched onto the bowl and began eating it.

It was like it was the best fucking thing I've ever tasted, it could've been old kitchen dish water for all I know but the fact I haven't eaten in days says that I didn't care.

The soup was nearly almost gone and practically dripping down my chin, I felt like an infant who was eating food for the first time.

The sound of the door opening startled me and almost caused the bowl to fall in my lap, quickly I sat it back down on the table and layed down on my side and pretended to be asleep.

Despite waking up here and being given food I didn't know what these peoples intentions were with us, especially since David wasn't here with me, what if they hurt him and decided to kidnap me.

I listened as footsteps came into the room, it sounded like more than one person and from the deep voices they were guys.

"Looks like she's still knocked out." one of them said, the voice sounded familiar for some reason.

"Apparently not since the bowl is almost gone..." another voice pointed out, my body tensed from who ever called me out.

_Shit.._

When a pair of hands a touched at my arm I went full on attack mode, using the back of my hand I swung around and felt it collide with the guys face.

Crawling off the bed fast I ran over to the other end of the room pressed myself against the corner, glancing down to see that my stuff was within reach I grabbed my bat and held it up in defense.

"Stay the fuck back or I'll..." I began to threaten when the guy started chuckling causing me to stop.

"God damn lil Angel that's a mean back hand you got." the guy said while rubbing at the red mark forming on his cheek, it was pornstache guy from earlier.

When he sat up from the bed I could see how fucking tall this guy way, fuck my interest for tall guys cause I could feel myself getting nervous.

"Wh..who the hell are you people...where's my brother?" I managed to asked through my nervous jitter, pornstache rose his hands up and made his way towards me.

"Stay away from me!" I threatened raising my bat ready to hit him, he stopped in his steps.

"Look..just calm down Angel. No ones here to hurt you, just put the bat down.' he said in assurance, I hesitated at his words before slowly lowering the bat.

I eyed the other guy in the room with us, he didn't look familiar to me from last night. He had auburn hair and looked to be about in his late thirties, for some unknown reason the look he was giving made me uncomfortable.

"Who are you guys?" I questioned again, Pornstache gestured his hand to himself and to the guy beside him.

"The names Simon and this is David, we were told to come wake you up and take you to tour brother and Negan." he informed , I raised my brow in confusion.

Why wasn't my brother here with me instead, especially since his ankle was fucked up from that walker encounter.

_Who's this Negan guy anyway?..._

"Ok..let me grab my bag." I said while reaching for it but the guy named David beat me to it and snatched it off the ground.

"I'll carry it for you sweetie." he insisted while giving me a smile, my face cringed at the way he called me sweetie and I snatched the bag out his grasp.

"Thanks but I can hold my stuff." I asserted while bring the bag handle over my shoulder.

Waiting for Simon to walk out first I followed right beside him, now looking at from a close distance he wasn't that bad looking.

For some reason the dark receding hairline suited him well, his mustache made him look hispanic to me. And his height, damn he has to be probably six foot one or something.

"You're staring a bit to much there Angel" I heard him say pulling me from secret thoughts, glancing up to his face he was smirking at me from a side ways glance.

Turning away I could feel my face burning up from getting caught staring at him, taking a chance I looked at the walls of the hallway.

"What is this place, it looks like a run down building." I said looking at the grey cemented walls.

"It was a factory when we found it a few days ago, been fixing her up and making good use of it so far." Simon said while opening the doorway towards the stairs for us, reaching hallway up the stairs I could make out Brents voice.

Relief and joy came over me that I rushed up the steps fast as possible, I could hear Simons voice calling behind me bit I was already into the hallway and making way towards the door where the voices were coming from.

Bursting inside the room I saw Brent sitting on a chair with the guy assumed to be Negan sitting up a desk table, seeing him safe and unharmed made me so happy.

"Laura everything ok?" he asked while standing up from the chair,without warning I ran over and hurled myself onto him in a death grip hug.

"Gah..Laura watch it my ankle is still fucked up." Brent exclaimed but I still held myself onto him.

"I thought something happened to you...you weren't in the room with me and I got scared." I explained while fighting back the tears from the thought of being left alone without him with me, his arms wrapped around me.

"Its ok Laura, we're safe now." he said while kissing the top of my head, a gruffed cough brought us out of our family moment.

"Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but I would like to finish our discussion." Negan said while gesturing for Brent and I to take a seat, willingly I sat in the chair right beside him.

Before their discussion could recontinue Simon came walking into the room and shut the door behind him, his eyes looked down to mine and a smile formed on his lips.

Smiling back I looked away and sat there and listened while Brent began talking to Negan.

"Again..I want to thank you for saving our asses out there. We wouldn't be alive right now if you didn't." he said while grabbing my hand, looking up I saw Negan give a big smile.

"No need to thank me boy, the least we could do to help you two love birds." he said insinuating that we're a couple, I couldn't help but chuckle at this.

Looking up I saw that Negan was looking at me with confusion to why I chuckled at him, "Something funny I said there doll?" he asked this time his smile faded.

"Oh no no, we're not a couple. He's my brother." I stated while placing my hands into my lap, Negans smile reappeared and he began to laugh a little.

"My bad then...just that you guys looked so close and all I assumed you two were fucking." he said causing my face to burn uncomfortably to those words, glancing over to Brent I saw that he was also uncomfortable.

"Uhh. No she's my sister...Getting back to what you were tell me before, me and Laura could stay here right?" he asked, becoming curious to this conversation I butted in.

"Wait, you said we can stay here?" I asked Negan, he shook his head to my question.

"Sure, if you guys are willing to help build up this place. If not I won't stop you from leaving." he said then looked at Brent who probably would have a say in this choice.

"We can do that, I'm willing do work to earn our keep and safety here."Brent said , looking at him I was confused as to why he only said that he would work.

"What do you mean that you'll work, I want to work as well." I said gesturing to myself.

"I want you to stay safe and away from danger Laura." Brent said in concern, I was becoming angry at him treating me like I'm a helpless child.

"I'm not a kid anymore Brent, I want to help out too!." I said raising my voice at him, Negan chuckled and walked over to pat my shoulder roughly.

"Come on boy, the girl said she wants to earn here keep so let her fucking work then, by the way doll how old are you." he asked looking down at me, glancing up I could see a glint in his eyes that made me nervous.

Of course people assume I'm older than my real age, developing at a young age my body looks more mature than most girls in school. With this older guys even men would try picking me up when I'd go out or even at work.

"I'm seventeen." I said while looking away from his eyes, his hand that stayed on my shoulder squeezed gently before pulling away.

"Ah damn...guess I have to find you another job then for the time being..Maybe next year." he said flirtatiously with a wink, looking away I tried not to blush at whatever he was suggesting.

Brent seemed not to fond with this obvious flirty behavior and wanted to change topics.

"So where would we be staying at?" he asked while looking at Negan and grabbing my hand protectively.

Seeing this Negan smirked and motion Simon to come up towards the desk.

"This here is my good friend and right hand man Simon. I figured you two already got acquainted Laura."Negan said, glancing up I saw Simon looking at Negan and then me.

"Yeah we did..had her slap me a little." he said with a chuckle, I bite my lip to try not to laugh at him mentioning what had happened earlier.

"Whoah seems like you two are getting close already there Si." Negan teased earning an unsettling side glance from Brent and he seemed to notice that it was making me uneased.

"Alright well Simon here will show you where you two will be staying, oh but before you go. I figured this was yours doll." Negan said while pulling something from his back pocket.

Looking up I saw that it was my phone, gasping in surprise I reached up to grad it from him, but he pulled it back away from my grasp.

"Ah ah ah, I think I'll hang onto this for awhile." he said with a teasing smile, immediately I felt myself begin to get teary eyed.

Everything I that hold memories of our life and family was on my phone, and with him wanting to take it away was making me very sad.

"Can I have it back..please." I asked while trying to wipe at the tears spilling from my eyes, Negans expression seemed to change when seeing me that hurt from h teasing about keeping my phone.

"Geez Doll I was only messing with you, just make sure to not have it around the other workers wouldn't want it to get stolen." he said while handing it to me, gently I grabbed it from his hand and held it to my chest.

"Alright let me show you two kids to your rooms?" Simon said while gesturing for us to leave the room, placing my arm around Brent I helped him walk towards the door.

Not before glancing back at Negan and giving him a genuine smile.

"Thank you." I mouthed to him before stepping out the room and following Simon to our new permanent rooms.


	4. Unwanted trouble

**(Normal POV)**

The last couple of weeks seemed to go by faster than expected, after Brents ankle properly healed he was put up to help with building the barriers around the place.

Apparently he was more capable of helping out than Laura, she wasn't quite happy with being cooped up in her room for most of the time.

She sat on her bed staring blankly at the cell phone, the screen was cracked a bit but still worked to her surprise.

Ever since Negan gave it back she hasn't looked at it, not that she didn't want to, but it was because she couldn't.

Just the idea of looking through her photos and looking at their faces brought back that awful memory of what happened to them, the horrifying metal image of it being played over and over again.

The blood dripping from her dads mouth and chin while his hands were digging inside of her mothers stomach burned into her mind, knowing what he had done made Laura almost gag in mouth.

Tears started pooling from her eyes at not being able to stop replaying the event over in the back of her eyes.

Clasping her hands over her ears she tried muttering words over and over to make it stop.

"Go away go away go away..make it stop make it stop" she kept repeating desperately, covering her eyes she continued to cry out through it all.

About ten minutes passed till a loud knock came from the door, Laura looked over from the bed and wiped at the left over tears from her face.

"Who is it?" she called out, the deep voice on the other end called out.

"Its Simon sweetheart,Negan told me to check up on you." He said, sighing Laura got up from her bed and made it over to the door.

Unlocking it she opened it to reveal Simon tall stature on the other end, he was wearing a black shirt and a pair of light pants.

He looked down at Laura with a smile and a tray of food in his hand.

"Figured that you were hungry so I brought you lunch also...hey you alright?" he asked when noticing how red and swollen her eyes appeared to be.

Shaking her head Laura rubbed at her eyes and smiled softly, "No its just my allergies acting up again, thanks for the food." she said while trying to grab the tray but when she grabbed it his grasp on it didn't cease.

"I wasn't born yesterday kid, sit and tell me what's wrong." he said while making his why passed her and into the room.

Watching him take the chair from the corner of the room and pull it close to the bed he sat and waited for Laura to sit across from him, taking a seat she couldn't look him directly in the eyes yet.

"Now tell me what's wrong Angel, whatever you tell me doesn't leave from this room." he said in promise, Lauras hands started shaking so she clasped them together.

"I...Im afraid...everything that's happened..it doesn't seem realat all but I keep waking up in the same place and not in my own room back at home.." she began saying, Simon listened and saw how her body was trembling.

"How did you and brother end up at that abandoned camp?" he asked her, she hesitated to answer him but worked up the words to leave her mouth.

"We left our home to seek safety there, figured that the army would protect us  
...but they were all gone. Then we ran into you guys." she said, hoping that was all he would ask.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your parents since they're not with you guys here." he asked, Lauras face went pale when he mentioned their parents.

Griping her hands tighter together Lauras looled down at attempting to hide the tears, she couldn't bring up what had happened to them, it still made her sick just thinking about pulling that trigger.

Seeing how much the question affected Laura Simon stepped out of the chair and took a seat next to her on the bed, her small body shaking beside him.

Slowly he reached his arm around her and pulled her for a sideways hug for comfort, he body jerked a bit against him but settled into it.

Laura didn't know whether to push him away or hug him close, so she just settled with the comfort of this.

Her tears still fell from her chin and onto the fabric of her jeans getting them wet, using the sleeve of her sweater she wiped at her eyes.

"It hurts..it hurts so much not having them here with us. Brent doesn't want to dwell and grieve about it but I can't.. How can I be ok with what we done?" she asked him but more likely asked herself, looking up at him she saw Simon looking into her eyes and then look down at the ground.

"I'm not going to sugar coat shit and say things will never get better, there's no way that life will go back to how it was before. But you shouldn't dwell and give up, keep fighting and become stronger for the ones you still have here in your life because they to can be taken away." he said while holding her tighter against himself.

His words really sunk in for Laura, wiping the rest of her tears away and looked over at her phone. Grabbing it she put it in her side pocket and looked up at Simon with a smile on her face.

"Thanks...I really needed to hear that..." she said , earning a smile in return Simon patted Laura on the head.

"Don't mention it kiddo" he teased, she swatted his hand away.

"Hey I'm not a kid Pornstache." Laura shot back then realized what she called him, he looked down at her with a raised brow and smirk.

"That's a new one... Pornstache.. Ha I like it.. Good one Angel!" he laughed , Laura couldn't help but also laugh along with him.

**(Lauras POV)**

After I finished the tray of food Simon brought I asked if he can take me to where Brent was working at, agreeing to doing so I quickly put on my work boots and waited for him to lead the way out the room.

Making sure it was locked with the key that was given to me I followed him down the hallway and down the stairs to the main floor, while doing that we across some of the others staying here and new people.

Once getting outside I was met with the cool autumn breeze, thankfully I had on my sweater cause I would've been cold. Looking around I could see people going back and forth from unloading the trucks and putting up wood barriers, I managed to find him in the crowd.

Brent looked sweaty and tuckered out but still put in some work, I was about to call out to him when a loud voice boomed from behind us making me jump.

"Alright ladies take a ten minute break!" Negans yelled, I could see a few people groaning in relief.

Looking back to see Negan wearing the same leather jacket from the other day and dark blue jeans, now that think about he was pretty good looking.

Kind of reminded me of my track coach I had a crush on freshman year, all rugged and darkly charming.

"So how's Simon treating you so far sweet cheeks?" he asked me, looking back I saw Simon stare at Negan with a thumbs up.

"Good so far, just trying to figure out where to put her to work." Simon said, this could be a good chance for me to ask Negan since every time asking Brent he'd turn me down.

"I could work with Brent and the others." I suggested with a smirk, hoping that it would persuade Negan in saying yes.

He looked at me and chuckled at my expression,"I like your attempt Sweet cheeks, but your brother informed me to keep you away from that line of work." he informed, instantly I became angry.

_Are you fucking kidding me..no this is bullshit!._

_"_You got to be... Brent!" I turned around and yelled making my way towards him, he could tell I was pissed by the puzzled look on his face.

"Aye.. Laura what's wrong?" he asked seeming somewhat nervous, my face felt like a hot pepper.

"Why the fuck did you tell Negan to not let me work with you, what makes you think its ok to do that behind my back without telling me?!" I yelled while pointing directly at his face, the other workers were all staring at the both of us brut I didn't care about causing a scene.

"Listen Laura just calm down, I just figured that it'll be to dangerous to be out here working..." before he could finish I grabbed the cup of water in his hand and splashed it right in his face, everyone gasped and laughed at my action.

"I'm not a fucking kid Brent, you don't have the right to make decisions for me!" I sneered then turned around back towards Negan and Simon.

"Negan , give me something to do please." I asked while trying to control my frustration of Brent, smirking Negan wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pointed to me.

" I might have a perfect job for you." he stated, looking at him I remember the comment he made a few weeks ago about what he would've like for me to do.

"Please let it be something age appropriate." I teased with a nervous smile, Negan laughed loudly at that,glancing over I could Simon smirking at me.

"Aww doll at this point age is nothing but a number..but lucky for I have something else that you could be helpful at. Simon and some of the other guys are heading out to search for goods and stuff we'd need."he said, my face lite up in excitement.

Negan was letting me go out with Simon and them to actually be helpful, instead of being cooped up in my fucking room for another three weeks.

"Sure I can do that!" I stated with a determined expression, patting my back Negan motioned for me to go to Simon.

"Alrighty then, Simon get her equipped and settled with the others. You guys will head out in the next few minutes, be sure to stay close with her the whole time." he instructed, Simon saluted him before answering.

"Yes sir." he said with a smile, grinning Negan waved bye to us before making his way back into the building with the others who were carrying bins from the trucks.

Looking back at Simon I couldn't hold back my giggling, he stared down at me with an amused smirk.

"What's so funny there Angel?" he questioned amusingly, raising my brow I was starting to wonder why he kept using that nickname on me.

"What's with the military salute there, and do you have to keep calling me that?" I questioned, Simon shrugged and smiled.

"Figured it suits you, if you want me to stop calling you that I will." he said, shaking my head no.

"No Its fine...just don't go flirting on me and we'll be good." I teased with a grin, earning a smirk back from him.

"I make no promises there Angel." he joked causing both of us laugh, afterwards I began following him down towards the other trucks that were at the half constructed gates.

Simon helped me get introduced with everyone that was joining the search, there were three older women in the group so I didn't entirely feel out of place.

That David guy was coming with us to, I just hope he doesn't try to get social because I get uncomfortable whenever he's near me.

"Alright this is the only gun I can find for you , but you'll probably just be ok with that bat you got." Simon said while handing me a small handgun and extra bullets, placing it in the back of my jeans I got into the passenger side of the truck he'll be driving.

**(Normal POV)**

Once everyone was set and ready to head out Simon got into the truck with Laura in the passenger seat and David in the back, honking the horn the front gates opened and he turned on the ignition to pull out and onto the dirt road.

Laura looked around at the side window as they drove, it was as if its been forever since she's been outside the Sanctuary. It's funny how Negan thought of that name for the place, as if it was the holy place.

Looking over at Simon she couldn't help but feel a bit excited to be hanging out with him, yes he was probably in his thirties but Laura had to admit he was pretty hot older guy.

"So Laura how's the place treating you?" David asked from the back seat, Laura glanced back to see him smiling at her with that unsettling loom in his eyes.

"Fine...thanks for asking." she answered back while looking out the window again.

"It must be nice to be seventeen, I remember those good old days. Getting tale left and right , you know what I'm talking about Simon." David grinned while patting on his shoulder, Laura looked over to see Simon looking a bit uncomfortable to David's probing.

"That would depend on what tale you were chasing there. Cause something tells me you and Simon chase different kind of tales." Laura teasingly joked at David, she could hear Simon trying not to let out a hold back chuckle in his throat.

"Trust me sweetheart, the tale I chase are all just like you." he said with a smirk to her, Laura felt extremely unsettled by his words.

"Alright David that's enough, she's underage so knock it off" Simon said in warning, glancing over she could see Simon got irritated by what David said.

The ride lasted for about almost half an hour till Simon stopped to where there was an abandoned Wal-Mart, surprisingly there didn't seem to be any walkers within the region, at least for now.

Waiting for Simon to get out first Laura followed suit and made way over to the front of the truck, looking around she could see everyone was gathering around where they were.

"Alright listen up, pretty sure this place was everyone's target when the shit hit the fan, but maybe if we're lucky there some useful stuff left behind. Everyone go in pairs and make sure there's no walkers in sight." Simon ordered, seeing how everyone obeyed him made Laura smirk a bit.

"Laura you come with me" she heard Simon say while grabbing his ruffle from the back of the truck, not even noticing him coming up David wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Its ok Simon I can look after her" he said with a suggestive smile, Laura wanted to peel his filthy hand off her waist but felt a bit fearful of doing it.

Before she could even speak Simon yanked him away from him and placed her by his side, the expression in his face didn't seem at all pleasant towards David.

"She goes with me, keep playing this game David and Negan will hear about this." he threatened, David's jaw clenched with the threat of Negan, seeming defeated he walked off to head inside the building.

Laura could feel the heated anger coming off Simon against her body, looking up she saw him taking steady calm breaths and releasing his grip on her arm.

"If he ever and I mean ever does any kind of shit to you, come to me and I'll handle it." he said without even looking at her, Laura felt her face heat up with how masculine and meaningful his words sounded, as if he actually did care about her well being.

"Yes Simon" she said while looking away in hope of him not seeing her pinkish face, taking a moment to get his composure back Simon walked towards the building with Laura following close behind.

Once getting inside both him and Laura had to turn on the flash lights cause the building power was out, it was really dark in there that it was hard to see where to walk cause there was a lot of shit scattered all over the floor.

Simon walked around towards the food section of the place, having Laura help find some canned and boxed items. With some luck they managed to find boxed noodles, hamburger helper, mac and cheese and pancakes.

Rummaging over in the chips aile Laura was very pleased to find some Cheetos puffs, they are her all time favorite chips to munch on. Breaking open a bag she took a few and ate them, the cheesy flavor made her eyes roll in the back of her head.

"Hey Angel , you just gonna hog the whole damn chips to yourself" Simon playfully joked while digging his hand into the bag and grabbing a hand full.

Watching his stuff the whole handful into his mouth Laura noticed that there were a bit of left over Cheetos dust crumbs in his mustache, trying not to laugh she placed her hand against her lips.

"What's so funny over there?" He asked, shaking her head Laura pointed to his face.

"You got a cheetostache." she chuckled, using his hand Simon tried getting off the crumbs, looking at Laura she could see he missed a few.

"Jesus dude they're still in there, here let me get it." Laura laughed while pulled up the end of her sleeve over her hand to use and wipe at Simons face.

She used the tip of her toes to get high enough and reach at his face, using her sleeve to get at the leftover bits and brush them off his stache. Now that Laura was this close to him she could get a good look at Simon, her eyes wander at the structure of his strong chin down to his neck.

Something told her that he used to be in sports when he was younger, probably still kept in shape all these years from how wide and hug his shoulders were. If she had to guess he's ripped underneath this flannel buttoned shirt, realizing that she was getting lost in though Laura pulled away from him.

"There ya go Pornstache." she said teasingly, Simon chuckled at the nickname she gave him and jokingly nudged her arm.

Keep calling me that and I'll have to dump this bag all over you kid." he warned with a smirk, Laura raised a brow and decided to test the waters with his threat.

"Pornstache" she said with a smile, within seconds he chased her down the aisle with the bag in his hand, Laura laughed and ran as fast as she could away from him.

Running out the aisle and kept on going in fear of having the cheetos dumped all over her, looking back she didn't see that Simon was following behind.

_Damn..I probably lost him, forgot how fast I am._

Looking to my side there was the woman's clothing section, from the looks of it there were a few clothes left dangling off the racks and on the floor.

It would be nice to find some new pair of clothes for Laura since half the clothes she had were getting dirty and teathered up, rummaging around there were at least a few decent looking shirts and sweats that would probably fit.

For some reason Laura could've sworn that someone was whispering from out of nowhere, staying still and silent she waited to see if it would happen again.

After a minute the whispers came again, shining her light partly over to its direction it showed that there was a fitting room in the right corner.

It would've been the smart choice to go look for Simon, but Laura didn't want to feel like a child for having to go running back to someone when instead she can go check it out herself.

Stuffing the clothes into her backpack Laura pulled out the bat hanging from her belt hoop, getting herself prepared for defense she slowly walked over into the fitting room section.

Making sure as to not make much noise when stepping over stuff on the floor,Laura could hear the whispers getting closer and more clear. It sounded like feminine voices, that kind of settled her worries but then they could also be dangerous.

Gripping onto the handle of the bat Laura crept over to the door to where the voices came from and swiftly pushed the door open, she aimed the bat back in case of having to attack and aimed the flashlight inside the stall.

Two girls were both startled and quickly reacted to aiming their guns at Laura, panicked at first of them possibly shooting her but then one of them caught a good glimpse at her through the blinding light.

"Aarat wait.. Its just a kid." the blonde haired girl said while lowering her weapon and pushing the other girls down away from Laura, all three of them looked at each other in suspicion.

"What are you guys doing hiding in here?" Laura questioned, the one named Aarat looked at her with hesitation to answering the question.

"We're being followed by people" she said while looking to to see if anyone was behind Laura.

Using the light to examine their appearance Laura managed to spot the other girls leg was bleeding through her pants, taking a step she pointed to the wound.

"You're injured, if you come with me my friend will help take you somewhere safe with us." she said in assurance, the girl seemed to be pleased by her words but the other girl quickly aimed the gun to Laura.

"That's what the person that found us last time said, we weren't exactly fucking safe where we escaped from." she sneered, Laura could sense that this girl was having a hard time trusting her.

Although she can't blame her, where ever they were taken to or with things didn't seem at all pleasant for up her hand she looked at Aarat, her eyes trying to show how trustworthy she was.

"I know you don't trust what I'm saying, but believe me the people in with are not like the ones you guys are with. Just wait right here and I'll go get my friend to show you I'm telling the truth." Laura said while taking a step back out the room, both of them looked at each other then to her.

"You have about five minutes to get back or we're out of here." Aarat said while putting her gun down, quickly Laura shut the door and began finding her way out of the section and out into the walkway of the aisles.

Aiming her flashlight she tried to see if Simon was around, huffing she made her way back to where he was last seen. To no luck he wasn't in the aisle where they were goofing around in, before she could turn around to head in the other direction something pressed up behind causing her to be startled.

Gasping Laura turned around and was prepared to attack but before swinging the bat a hand caught onto it stopping her.

"Its ok Angel just me, jeez I probably should be careful creeping up behind you." Simon said with a chuckle, feeling relieved now Laura lowered her bat down.

"Probably a good idea, but I need you to come with me to the fitting room." Laura said,he looked at her for a second before raising a brow and smirking.

"Damn Angel aren't you taking things a bit to fast, at least take me out to dinner first." he teased playfully, Laura didn't catch on to what he was saying at first but then began to blush when she did.

"Th..that's not what I was insinuating you, there's two people that need our help from people trying to find them." she stated while tugging at his hand to starting guiding him back over there, Simon looked at her in confusion and stood him ground and causing her to stop.

"What do you mean you found two people?" he asked, she was about to speak before the sound of a gun going off came from the front door entrance of the store.

Both of them jumped up at the unexpected noise, Laura looked at Simon to see what was going on.

"We know there are people in here, there also two girls that we're looking for with you. Just come on out and hand them over so there won't be any trouble!" a voice yelled out causing it to echo through the silent building.

Simon hastly shut off his and Lauras flashlight so they woudlnt be spotted, looking around he noticed that the others did the same exact thing across the building.

"_We're gonna get the upper hand of these assholes." _Simon whispered to Laura, she looked at him and then back behind them.

"_Wait we have to go back to the girls they're waiting for us." _she whispered anxiously while trying to pull him to walk with her.

Simon was going to protest when the sound of heavy footsteps came towards them, quickly he pulled them back into the heavily darkened aisle and pressed Laura against him protectivly.

_"What are we gonna.." _she was halfway with her sentence when he pressed his hand over her mouth silencing her.

She couldn't see what was going on but Simons quietly shushed her while trying to hear the footsteps getting close to their direction, Laura could feel how hard Simons body was against her small frame.

Realising that how close they were together she couldn't stop the heat forming in her face, for some reason Laura couldn't help but not getting flustered with Simon being this close.

"_We need to keep quiet till these people walk past and get to the others."_ Simon whispered close to Laura's ear, the sensation of his warm breath hitting her skin caused Laura to have deep flutters in her stomach.

Biting her lip from behind his hand Laura placed her hands over his in order to distract her from the heated sensation inside her.

From how serious he sounded Laura guessed that Simon hasn't noticed how nervous she was with him pressed up against her, when she finally heard the footsteps reaching the end if he side of them she gripped into his hands in fright of being seen.

They both stood their in dead silence as the sound of two people talking to each other , they had one flashlight with them and were facing away from them. Laura could feel Simon begin to pull away from her slowly with his hand slipping off her mouth, she stood there quietly not realizing what he was going to do.

Trying to see where he was she looked over to the two men just standing a few feet away from that could turn around and spot her at any moment, the one with the flash light started walking off ahead of the other one.

With very little light to see Laura managed to spot Simon was behind the other one and pulled him back into the aisle in a death gripped head lock, the guy struggled for a second till the sound of something snapped caught her ears.

Not bothering to take a chance of having the other one notice them Simon quickly rushed over to the other guy and pulled out his pocket knife, using his hand arm he wrapped it around the guy and stabbed him in the side of his neck. It took a few more stabs to get the guy down, Laura watched while covering her mouth in astonishment to how stealthy he was able to do that.

Getting back on his feet Simon made his way back over to Laura and turned off his flashlight but placed his hand over it so it wouldn't flash that bright, finally being able to see Laura saw the blood splattered on his shirt and hand.

_"You ok there Angel?"_he asked concernly, Laura shook her head yes, smiling at the answering Simon grabbed at her hand to pull them both out the aisle into the darkened open.

It was then that he noticed that there were other flashlights shining in the other direction of them, from his best guess they were from his group.

"_We need to run the others fast" _he whispered, Laura looked at Simon and remembered what she needed to do.

"_Wait we have to go get the girls first." _she stated while trying to pull away from his grip, Simon tugged on her hand and looked back at her.

"_There's no time for that, they're not our concern to deal with." _he said sounding harsh, Laura shook her hand and yanked her hand away from him.

"I'm going back for them." Laura said not caring if he protested, turning on her heel she rushed down the digestion she could make out of where the fitting room was.

Simon quietly yelled out to her but she kept on going, it didn't matter that this was probably dangerous and stupid she couldn't just leave these two behind and let them get hurt.

Laura managed to find herself back to the fitting room section, although she ran I to a few racks here and there but that didn't matter. Quickly she pushed open the door with the girls inside, Aarat right away had her gun aimed at the door but then realized it was her.

"_Where the fuck is your friend, those guys are in here?" _she whispered in a nervous tone, Laura looked behind and then back to her.

"_He's waiting for us at the back end of the building, just come with me and we'll get out of here."_ Laura lied in hopes of getting them out, Aarat stared at her in suspicion.

"_Aarat we don't have enough time to argue about this we gotta get out before he finds us." _the other girl said in fright, seeing how conflicted Aarat was with not having any other choice she groaned.

_"Alright alright, lead the way and we'll follow behind" _she said while grabbing onto the other girl and helping her walk out the room.

_"You're not gonna make it far enough,let me help."_Laura said while grabbing onto the other side of the girl and began walking out with them.

They didn't even make it halfway the fitting room when a sound of a clock clicking back, a bright light flash over blinding them for a moment.

"Lookey what we got here, finally found you two little trouble makers. And seems like you made a new friend." a gravely voice said causing Laura to form goosebumps on her skin, she could sense the girls body stiffen at knowing who was talking.

"_Fucking shit." _Aarat hissed silently, Laura secretly wished she woudlve listen to Simon.

_Simon where are you?_


	5. Close save

**(Lauras POV)**

My heart was racing fast at being found out by the unknown people, the girl I held onto was breathing frantically from fear.

Glancing my eyes over to Aarat I could see the rage in her eyes as she looked at the man holding the gun at us, going back to the guy I watched as he made his way towards us.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you guys are something else running off like that. Not to mention killing some of my guys at that, Aarat I now fully well it was all your doing." he said while ever so slowly caressing her face, she glared up at him.

"Yeah and I'll fucking do it again." she sneered earning a chuckle from him, then his attention came to the other girl and noticed her injury.

"Oh Maddie... My sweet girl, why did you follow this trouble making bitch?"he asked her, I could feel her body trembling against mine.

She seemed so terrified to even look at him, when there was no response he roughly grabbed by the chin and forced her to look at him.

"Fucking answer me when I speak to you!" he boomed right in her face, tears immediately formed in her eyes.

"Back the fuck off her Travis!" Aarat ordered while aiming her gun at him, he turned to look at her with a deathening stare.

"You don't fucking scare me girl." he sneered, I decided to help and yank Maddie away from him and put myself between them.

"Do what she says, just leave us alone" I demanded while holding onto my bat, Travis turned his attention towards me now.

His eyes going up and down observing me and then he smirked in amusement.

"And who the hell might you be lil butter cup." he asked flirtatiously, I cringed as he licked the top of his teeth.

"None of you're damn business scrotum chin." I retorted back, I could hear Maddie hold back a chuckle from behind me.

Laughing menacingly Travis looked at me and then to Maddie from the back, his eyes showing such anger and frustration.

"Maddie come on, make this easy and I'll let your friends here off the hook." he said trying to sound persuasive, Aarat immediately went beside me and glared at gun.

"She's not going anywhere with you, over my dead body!" she sneered and pointed her gun to him, looking over I saw Maddie grab her arm.

"Aarat wait don't, things will only get worse if we fight." Maddie said, trembling she made her way around us and over towards Travis.

He seemed ever so pleased of her making the right choice, I could see how enraged Aarat was from how her body tensed and hand was clenching the gun.

"You made the right choice my sweet girl."he said while moving the strands of hair away from her face, while wrapping his arm around her waist his eyes darted towards Aarat and the glint in his eyes gave me and unsettling feeling.

"We're done here, deal with these two however you want." he said while walking away with Maddie, realizing what he meant Aarat readied her aim to shoot at him.

"You mother..hey get off me!" she yelled when someone unexpectedly grabbed from behind and disarmed her.

I was about to retaliate when someone else also grabbed onto me and tried getting me down, with his forearm around my neck I clawed at his his skin and my teeth in to make him let go.

" Gah you fucking bitch." he exclaimed in pain and turned me around punch me in the face, falling to the floor I tried to get back up despite the taste of copper forming in my mouth.

But the guy got on top of me and latched his hands around my neck, I tried to declaw him off my neck but his weight and strength was over powering compared to mine.

Looking over in the corner of my eye I could see Aarat trying to fight and kick the guy behind her but then another guy appeared and held both her legs down while trying to tear at her clothes.

Wait they're going to rape us?!

Panic I tried screaming in hopes of anyone hearing, praying in hopes that it would be Simon the one to hear.

The pressure around my neck was becoming to much, my ears were slowing starting to ring as it felt like all the air to my brain was slipping away.

Desperately I reached around on the ground for something to grab, as my vision began to start slipping away I felt a sharp object prick the skin of my hand.

Without hesitating I gripped onto the object and pulled it up fast to hit the guy in the face.

When he toppled off and released his grasp the air immediately filled my lungs, gasping I sat up and looked at what I did.

Turned out the object I grabbed was a broken metal rod and now it was punctured into the side of the guys face.

Panicked I stood up on my feet and looked over to the side, seeing that Aarat was still in danger I went into action.

Retracting my bat off the floor I hauled ass over and aimed the bat up in the air.

"Get the fuck off her!" I yelled out, causing the guy tearing at her shirt to look at me.

Within seconds the bat collided with the side of his neck, you could literally heard the crunch sound of his skull cracking when he hit the ground.

"Brian..fucking bitch!" the guy who held Aarat released his hold on her and pulled out his gun to aim at me, when he shot in my direction Aarat tackled him to the ground.

I saw as they both fought for the gun, when I saw that Aarat somehow got a hold of it she emptied the load into his head.

Relief came over me that she was alright, Aarats head turned around and looked at me in assurance.

"You alright?" she asked, I shook my head yes and went over to help her up.

"Wait Maddie..we have to go get her!" Aarat said while grabbing at my arm to start hauling me with her.

We made it half way till a figure appeared ahead causing us to stop in our tracks, Aarat aimed her gun ready to fire at it till I realized it was Simon.

"Don't shoot,he my friend." I said while rushing over to Simon, he came up to me and gripped me tightly around my arm.

"The fuck were you thinking running off?!" he yelled causing me to feel like a scolded child, the worry and anger on his face.

"Aarat.. Maddie they need our help  
" I said , Aarat came up beside me and looked at Simon.

"That doesn't matter, you're suppose to stick with me and you ran off with." he said.

"Look you two can argue later, I need to.." before she could finish talking the sound of a car alarm going off came from outside.

Looking behind Simon I could take a guess it was Travis and his men trying to steal our rides.

"Shit they're trying to leave!" I said while pushing Simons hands off and running towards the front entrance.

I could hear Simon yelling for me, Aarat followed behind with gun set and ready.

When making it outside I could see that Travis was trying to start up Simons truck, taking out my gun I aimed and started shooting at the windshield.

Maddie scream could be heard but luckily Aarat saw that she ducked down, I managed to to get five shots in till noticing some of Travis men drawing their guns into us.

"Oh shit. Get down!" Aarat yelled while yanking me down and towards and abandoned car in front of the store.

I felt a bullet barley missed my head as I fell down next to Aarat taking cover, placing my back against the metal door I looked at the brick wall and watched as every bullet zipped over and hit it.

Aarat was looking to see how many bullets she has left, taking the chance also looked to see if I have enough. Cursing underneath my breathe I saw that I had no more bullets, quickly I pulled out my bat from the belt hoops.

"The fuck is a bat gonna do for us?" Aarat asked looking at me dumbfounded, looking back at her I couldn't help butbget aggravated.

"You have any other fucking bright ideas then?" I asked harshly, before she could even say anything someone came up from behind her.

I was about to swing my bat a them till realizing that it was David, somewhat relieved I pulled back and saw that the others were also now with us.

"Lets ice theses fuckers, try not to damage the truck!" hearing Simon voice order out, looking frantically I couldn't see him anywhere.

Everyone started opening fire on Travis men, Aarat was also shooting at them till the gun was empty.

Trying my best I peaked out to look over and seeing that Simons truck appeared to be empty, seeing now would be a good time I looked back to Aarat.

" Maddie's still in the truck, David cover us please!" I yelled, he turned to me and nodded his head.

Taking Aarats hand I pulled her up and made our way over to the truck, we had to slouch and cover under the bullets and having David clear a path for us.

We reached up to the driver side of the door, pulling out her blade Aarat decided to be the one to open it. Coming up behind her I watched as she yank on the door revealing Maddie cowering underneath the head board by the seat.

"Maddie I'm here, where's Travis?" Aarat asked looking inside questionably to not seeing him.

Maddie was slowly made her was out from the the hiding spot till I felt something tightly grip the back of my sweater and forcefully yank me back. When landing on my back I looked back up to see it was Travis, Aarat turned around and tried to swing her blade at him but he was to fast and caught her hand.

Twisting it till she let go of the blade he turned her around and pressed his gun to her skull, his back was facing me which was good to my advantage.

"I just want the two girls, let us go and there will be no more trouble!" he yelled out towards Simon and the others, getting up I slowly crept behind him and readied the bat in my hands.

I looked inside the truck to see Maddie looking at me and shaking her head for me to do it, taking my chance I pulled back and swung the bat as hard as I could across Travis back.

The impact was so loud and hard that the wood of the bat cracked and nearly broke, Travis grip on Aarat loosened causing her to fall to the ground. I looked at him baffled that he didn't hit the floor, but to my better judgement he was a lot stronger than I thought.

When he slung around saw it was me I almost went pale at the enraged expression he gave me, panicked I tried to use what was left of the bat to hit at him but he used his arm to block my attack.

Grabbing at my bat he chucked it out of my hand, I didn't know what to do now.

" You fucking lil shit, you're gonna pay for that." he sneered and aimed his gun at me, I began backing away frantically.

As soon as his finger went on the trigger I saw Maddie launch out of the driver side door and tackle Travis , his gun went off but I didn't see or feel it bit me.

Aarat saw Maddie struggling with the gun in his hand and rushed over to help her, from how well they worked together I could tell that they really cared for each one another so much that they want to be rid of this guy.

Successfully the managed to get the gun from Travis and aim it at his head, Maddie got off and looked down at him anger. I managed to to find Aarats blade and made my way over to them, handing it over to her I looked over to David and them to signal that it was alright now.

"You're making a mistake Maddie, everything I'd done for you was for you're best interest." Travis said while looked between her and Aarat, the look on their faces shows how little his words affects them.

"All the shit you've done me...everything you said was utter bullshit. You hurt me, tried to killed my friend and put me through hell.. You had this coming" Maddie sneered and pulled the trigger without hesitating, Aarat watched as she repeatedly shot at him till the gun was empty with gratification.

I just looked at Maddie and felt sorry for her, whatever he had put them through it had impacted her so much and that doing this would make her feel at ease.

When the gun was empty she dropped it on the ground, her body was shaking along with tears silently falling down her face.

Aarat pulled Maddie into a hug and placed her face on her shoulder, her eyes looked at me and shook. In appreciation.

I could hear the other coming in our direction, looking over them I could see Simon.

Feeling relieved I went to run over towards him, he saw me running and before he could get a so for word out I jumped up and hugged him.

Dumbstruck he wasn't expecting that, taking a second he wrapped his free arm around me while the other one was still holding his rifle.

"You fucking had me worried there Angel." he said in all seriousness, I wrapped my arms tighter around Simon suddenly feeling so much safer being with him.

"I'm sorry..please don't be mad." I said in a pleading tone, hearing him sigh I felt Simon pull himself away.

"I'm not mad Angel but...damn it Laura you're bleeding." he said noticing that my shirt was seeping with blood and now had stained his shirt.

Looking down I saw the lower half of my shirt was soaked in blood, pulling it up I gasped to see that I was actually hit.

_H..how was I hit...I didn't even feel it._

Now that my brain proceed the knowledge of the bullet wound my body slowly began to have a reaction to it, groaning in pain I looked at Simon with a half smile.

"Guess I got to excited and didn't feel it." I said in amusement, before I could think to take a step towards him I felt my feet begin to give out.

"God damn it Laura!" Simon groaned and quickly scooped me up in his arms, I felt him walk us towards the others and the girls.

"Alright change of plans, ending this scavenge a bit early. Everyone start heading back to the Sanctuary. You two come ride with me!" he said gesturing for Aarat and Maddie to come with him.

Doing what he said Maddie got in the back and Aarat in front, I felt as Simon carefully placed me in the back along with Maddie while laying my head in her lap.

"Watch out and help her for me." he said to Maddie, she nodded and looked down at me.

I tried to carefully apply pressure on the bullet wound to stop from bleeding but it hurt so fucking bad when I touched it, Maddie saw me attempting to do this and stopped my hands.

" You'll make it worse or infect it if you keep touching it. Do you have anything I can use to disinfect the wound?" she asked looking at Simon in the driver seat.

While trying to keep his attention on the road he reached into the side of his seat and pulled out a small glass bottle, reaching behind he handed it to Maddie.

I watched her great the smeared label on it and looked back at me.

"Vodka will have to do I guess..here you're gonna need a swing of this." she said while untwisting the cap, I looked at her in confusion.

"Why?" I asked, I earned a look from both her and Simon who was looking in the rear view mirror.

"Cause its going to fucking hurt like hell, drinking some it this will help ease the pain." Maddie said while placing the bottle out for me to take, I grabbed it from her hand and hesitantly placed my lips around it.

Tipping my head back I took about to gulps of the drink till I felt my throat and nostrils burn, I chucked it back in Maddies hand while coughing in discomfort.

"How the fuck can you drink that?" I asked Simon half coughing and laughing, from the angle of the rearview mirror I could tell he was trying not to smile.

Earning another laugh from me till I felt Maddie start lifting up my shirt, she hissed when seeing the wound. Thinking fast she pulled out her belt and folded it, she tilted my head up for me to look at her.

"I want you to bite down onto this for me ok."she said, shaking my head I let her place the belt between my lips as I bit down on the leather material.

Grabbing onto her hand I waited agonizingly as she began pouring the vodka onto my wound, naturally my body reacted from the unwanted pain that began stinging from inside.

My hands latched onto Maddies arms and hand as I kicked at the back side door to go with the pain, my jaw locked into the belt as my cries were muffled from behind it.

Tears slipped from my closed eyes, grabbing the bottle from Maddies hand I began chucking down almost a quarter of the bottle to help deal with the pain , when giving it back to her I slowly felt my lips get numb.

"Do it again.." I said before placing the belt back between my teeth, Maddie had torn off a piece of my sweater to wrap around the wound after dowsing it again .

When doing the process again it didn't hurt as much as before, but the mixture of the liquor and loss of blood was starting to affect my head. Looking over at Simon I could see his attention onto the road and that the speed of the truck had increased, he seemed to want to get me back as fast as possible.

Smiling I placed my hand out onto the back of his seat, slowly I felt my subconious slip away into darkness.


	6. Fresh start

**(Brents POV)**

I just helped finish off the last piece of the fencing around the Sanctuary, we would probably add more later on but Negan had told us it was alright for now.

Wiping off the sweat from my face I made my way over to the truck were the water was, the thought of Laura being out there was bothering me.

Of course she not a child anymore, but after everything that happened to our parents made me even more over protective of her and our safety.

No matter how strong I try to be for us, deep down the depression and emotional build up was bubbling up inside me.

I can't afford to loose Laura, she's all that I have left and if something were to happen I couldn't go on with myself.

It was as if God had answered my prayers cause one of the guys from the gates yelled out that the scanavgers are back, gulping down my cup of water I threw it down and rushed over to the opening gates to allow the trucks to come in.

When I saw the exterior of how the truck looked my stomach turned in anxiety, there were bullet holes on the truck. Panic came over me as I tried looking into the trucks as they passed to see if Laura was in there.

When the last truck came in I noticed that Simon was the one driving, remembering that Negan had placed Laura with him I rushed over to him.

He stopped the truck and then got out of the driver side, he was about to go towards the back passenger door till he saw me coming his way.

"Where the hell is Laura?" I asked him, he didn't answer me and went to the back door and opened it.

"Don't fucking ignore me. Where's my sister!?" I said, I watched and noticed that a girl came out from the other side of the back seat and another one from the passanver side.

"Who the hell are you guys?" I questioned, when Simon began pulling out something from the back I realised with widened eyes that it was Laura.

"Oh my God Laura!" I yelled and ran over to grab her from Simon, when I tried grabbing her from his arms he pulled away from me.

"You're gonna wake her up, she's in a lot of pain." he said then tried walking passed me, but I pulled him back by the collar and made him look at me.

"What the he'll did you do to my Laura?!" I asked demandingly, when I said that there was immediate anger in his eyes.

"I didn't fucking do shit you little punk!" he barked in my face, despite him being a few inches taller than me I wasn't intimidated by him one bit.

"The hell is going on out here, Simon I thought you guys would be gone longer than expected. Who the hell are our new guests?" Negan asked while walking up towards us and gesturing to the two new girls, Simon pulled away from my grasp and went over to Negan with Laura still in his arms.

"We ran into some fucking trouble during the search, got it taken care of but she was shot." he told Negan while looking down at Laura's knocked out form, Negan noticed the bloody cloth that was tied around her stomach and groaned in displeasure.

"Jesus kid.. Alright inform me more about it later, luckily we had a doc to get that cleaned and healed up." he said to Simon, nodding in agreement I watched as he walked away and I to the building.

I began to follow begins Simon, not once falling slow on his long stride walk down the halls.

"What happened out there, I have the right to know who hurt my sister." I demanded , when he didn't answer I rushed over and stopped right I front of him.

"Fucking answer me damn it!" I yelled at him, when I looked at Laura I felt my gut almost tighten in disgust at the wounds of her stomach.

My hands clenched into balls of fists at knowing someone had hurt her, Simon must've noticed my anger because he looked me right in the eyes.

" Don't worry, the guy got what he deserved. Come one before she gets even worse." he said then walked passed be and continued down the hall towards the infirmary.

**(Laura's POV)**

It felt like someone hit me on the head with a hammer, when I began waking up the after taste of the vodka invaded my throat. Cringing in disgust I tried sitting my self up but then stopped at the painful discomfort from my abdomen.

"Jesus Laura you shouldn't be moving yet." hearing Brent s voice from beside me, looking over I saw him rushing up from the chair he was sitting and setting me back to lay down.

My arms wrapped around him and hugged him close, feeling so happy to see him but knowing that I'm going to get an ear full from him right now.

Pulling away from me and sitting down on the side of the bed Brent looked down at the bandage around my stomach and shook his head at me.

"I told you that I didn't want you going out there, now look what happened." he said through gritted teeth, I looked at him in disbelief .

"Are you saying that its my fault that this happened, well fuck you fro sounding so concerned" I yelled while throwing the pillow at his face, he caught and chucked at the ground while getting up off his feet to look at me.

"I am concerned, I didn't want you going out there because I know you're not ready for that type of shit yet!" he yelled trying sound louder than me, whenever we'd argue this was always a thing we would do.

"The hell makes you think that I'm not ready to handle shit, I held my own pretty damn well today. Of course something like this was going to happen just be glad that I'm not dead!" I said trying to make him see how not much being of a deal he was making.

"Yeah but next time you could be dead, what then huh. What if you were shot in the chest or somewhere else important. Better yet, what if you wondered off on your own and those assholes cornered you, what then Laura?!" he asked me, I didn't actually think about that.

The fact that I wasn't alone and didn't get that badly injured wasn't that big of a deal for me.

But what if Simon or them weren't there with me, and I came across guys like Travis?

"I'm not tryingg to treat you like a child Laura I just want you to see that people are not like how they were before, hell even the goodness in people can change once shit hits the fan. Just because we know how to deal with the sick and kill them doesn't mean we know how to deal with the normal people." he said while rubbing his hands through his hair.

"You know you're starting to sound just like dad." I said out loud before thinking about it, Brent looked at me with a stern facial expression.

He hasn't let me talk about dad or what happened ever since we left home, its like he want to forget everything about them.

"Maybe that's a good thing, someone has to be the parent since you're acting like a damn child!" he sneered while looking away from me, I couldn't help but sense that Brent was trying to hold back from me his feelings about our parents and what happened with Lily.

"Brent...why don't you want to talk about them." I asked, he didn't turn to face me but still answered.

"Cause it doesn't matter anymore, they're gone so why talk about them like they're still here." he said harshly, I couldn't help the tears from spilling from my eyes.

"How can you say that about them Brent, hell they're family and its like you want to erase them from me." I said while wiping my eyes, I watched as he went over to the medical cup her and placed his hands onto the top of it.

Brent was never the one to open up about his feelings, it was like he was afraid to show that side of him to anyone especially me.

I've always looked up to him as a strong, tough stone older brother. But at times like this I just wished he'd express his emotions with me and hold me close while letting it out like I have been.

" Brent I know you miss as much as I do, but forgetting about them and acting like they never mattered won't make your pain go away. " I said, within a second Brent brushed his hands across the counter aggressively and chucked off everything onto the floor in anger.

"And you think crying and grieving will make them come back, face it Laura no matter how much you cry and pray for things to go back to normal it won't fucking happen!" he yelled causing me to jump a little, I never seen him his angry and it was as if he didn't want to take it out in me.

"You don't think I fucking miss them, how dad was a pain in my ass all the time about making sure I get into a good school to better myself!" he said while grabbing small metal tray and throwing it at the wall, I watched as he paced back and forth across the room and grabbing the next thing to toss.

"Or how mom was always there at my football games watching me play and yelling at us for getting caught sneaking out." he said causing a stiffle chuckle from his lips, the memory of those days flooded my head and caused more tears to flood my eyes and when I caught a glimpse at Brent s face he was to starting to cry.

"Brent you don't.." before I could say another word he cut me off.

"No no you want me to open up I'll fuck g open up Laura, yes I fucking miss them to death okay, you don't understand how much I don't get enough sleep thinking about what happened to them. I could've seen that dad was getting sick or help prevent what happened to mom and Lily." he said while trying to hold back his sobs, biting down on my lips hard I tried to stiffle back myself from crying.

Brent went back to the chair sitting across from my bed and sat down on it, his head facing down not even wanting to look at me.

"I could've prevented what happened, mom would be alive right now and so would've Lily. Dad should've told me...I don't understand why this happened. And I shouldn't have made you do what I couldn't do, I'm sorry Laura.." he said while placing his hands over his face, I sat there in both amazement and sorrow to the words he spoke to me.

Finally I knew that he was hurting as much inside as I was about everything, but seeing him like this made me feel awful forcing it out of him.

His sobs were muffled from behind his hands, sniffling I began sitting up from the bed.

The wound was hurting like hell and knowing that I shouldn't be moving right now didn't matter to me right now, all that mattered is that for once my brother was the one that needed me to console him.

When I got right infront of Brent he looked up at me in confusion to why I was up from bed, but before he could protest and force me back I wrapped my arms around his head and pulled myself close to him.

He stayed stiff for a moment till he felt my tears hitting on his skin, unable to hold it back anymore I felt his arms wrap around my waist and his face buried into my right shoulder blade.

His sobs vibrated through my body, causing me to hold him tighter and press my fresh bandage onto his body.

I was so angry with Brent for trying to take control of my choices and for starting to treat me like a child that I never stopped and wondered why.

But now I understand why Brent was acting the way he's been all this time, he was trying to protect me and not lose me too, we are all that we have left of each other.

After what seemed like hours that we both finished letting out all the built up emotions inside that I finally went back to he bed to lay down, Brent went to pick up the stuff he threw across the room before or anyone else came back into the room.

After putting back the metal tray was when Negan ,Simon and Carson came into the room.

"Ahh glad to see you're awake sweetheart, are you feeling any better?" Negan asked when noticing the bandage on my stomach and the puffy redness from my eyes, he looked at at Brent to the same thing but didn't bother questioning him.

"I'm doing ok now, how is Aarat and Maddie?" I asked him, Simon looked at Negan and then to me.

"They're doing fine, one of the ladies that was with us took them to kitchen and gave the something to eat and refresh themselves." Simon said making me feel relieved to know they're alright now.

"Simon here told me what you did to help those two girls, and I must say form someone small you had some big lady balls doing what you did for them." Negan said causing me to smile at the praise he was giving me, although both Simon and Brent still seemed a bit upset about me getting hurt.

" Although Simon did make a good point, you need to be more properly trained to fight back whenever you go back out with them." he said, Brent looked at Negan dumbfounded at what he said.

"Wait you can't let her go back out there again." he said while pointing to me, I looked at him annoyingly till Simon went over and pulled him off to the side.

I watched as he started talking to Brent and pointing at me and then to him, the expression on Brents face changed when Simon continued on speaking.

When their private conversation ended they came back over to me and Negan, Brent looked over at me and then sighed.

"Negans right, you do need to be more properly trained. And you're right, I can't keep making decisions for you and start treating you like a grownup." he said to me, I couldn't help from smiling to what he was saying.

"However, you're going to have to wait for that wound of yours to heal before beginning the training." Simon added o to Brents words, pouting I couldn't argue with them being right.

"Alright" I agreed , Negan patted Davids shoulders and turned to .

"Alrighty then, Docs gonna check on your wound again and give you some pain medicine to help along with the healing process." Negan said while walking, but before he took a step out the door he turned around in his heel.

"Oh almost forgot, he said while pulling out something from the other end of the door.

When he pulled something up in his hand I saw that it was a woode bat, finally I remember that Brents bat broke in half when I hit Travis across the back with it.

"Found out that you're bat broke, so figured I'd find you a new one. "Negan said while handing it to me, I looked down at it and traced my finger tips along the wooden structure.

"Thank you Negan...you didn't have to do that." I said to him, he shook his head and smiled at me.

"Don't mention it sweetheart, I have a bat already so figured that I give you my extra one to use." he said, looking up I raised my brow at him.

"Why have two bats, were you a baseball player or something?" I asked, earning a chuckle from Negan.

"Well not to brag, but I was a baseball player in college and coach afterwards." he said quite proudly, I looked at Brent and then smiled .

"Maybe once I'm all healed up we can play some ball." I said, looking at Negan I could see his eyes glint up at my challenge.

"Hmm we might just have to do that sweetheart, now if you'll excuse me I have to steal your brother away and talk about some important matters at hand." Negan said while gesturing for Brent to follow him out the room with him.

"Simon make sure Laura gets something to eat after this." Negan said while exiting the room

**(Normal POV)**

After changed Laura's bandages and gave her some pills to take she was able to leave with Simon, he took his time walking with her as they started heading down to the kitchen and grab something to eat.

With the stuff that everyone was able to find at Wal-Mart, the kitchen lady was able to cook up some Macaroni and cheese with some cornbread for supper.

When we opened the doors to the kitchen the sleep of the food hit Lauras nostrils and made her mouth water, she was so hungry and hadn't had mac and cheese in forever.

Simon saw the look of excitement on her face and chuckled, grabbing Laura and himself a tray he went over to the kitchen lady and had her readied their food.

While he did that Laura looked around to find Maddie and Aarat sitting at one of the empty tables, nervously she walker over towards them.

Maddie saw her and smiled while getting up out of her seat to walk over, she placed a gentle hug on Laura making sure not to touch her bandage.

"Thank thank you so much for what you did." she said while pulling away from me, I could see Aarat looking at us and a soft smile creeping up on her lips.

"It's no problem, I couldn't let you guys go back to that guy." I said, taking Aarat next to Maddie I waited for Simon to bring our food.

"So is that guy you're boyfriend or something?" Aarat asked me unexpectedly, I couldn't help but blush a bit.

"Oh no no, He's just a good friend, I'm only seventeen." I said , Maddie couldn't help but laugh.

"He seems like a good guy, but who was that guy who was yelling at him earlier?" she asked, realising who she was talking about.

"Oh that was my brother Brent, he should be here in a bit." I said, I couldn't help but see Maddie smiling a bit to that statement.

"She wants to know if he's single?" Aarat said, earning an embarased look from Maddie.

All three of us couldn't help but laugh at each other,I was happy that I now have two more people that could become good friends.

And now that I was possibly going to be able to be trained and able to help out more around here, it felt like this was going to be a fresh start of mine and Brents new life.


	7. Big changes

**Five years later**

**(****Lauras**** POV)**

Sticking my head out the side of the passenger window I let the cool mid-summer breeze blow through my hair, today I was in a happy mood for some reason.

Not to the fact that Negan allowed me and Aarat to take charge of the scavenger search today, but to knowing that Brent and the other saviors are coming back home after being gone for almost three months.

They were settling on a second location for us that they found a few weeks before and Brent volunteered to go along with Simon for help.

The thought of him kept invading my mind ever since he's been gone, Simon and I have became closer over the years.

Not as close as I would secretly hoped to be but we're like beans and rice, I noticed as I got older and physically changed more that he somehow started acting different around me.

Like whenever we were hanging out and some of the other guy saviors, especially David would try flirting with me Simon would put them in their place.

Not that I didn't mind him doing at in the beginning, but even now I would catch him looking at me with suggestive eyes at some points.

Me and Aarat have became close friends since after saving her and Maddie, even though she's about four years three years older than me we both still act like teenagers whenever we're together.

From what I know after getting to know her over the years is that she's black/mexican, was a military trainee and happened to be lesbian.

It didn't bother me that she was lesbian, hell in highschool I had two gay friends and one lesbian. So basically I had a familiar feel of what I used to have back at home, of course Aarat wasn't like my old friends.

She was string, intimidating and tough as shit when it comes to following orders from Negan. Of course that's why she ranked up quick to being his second right hand woman along with Simon.

Luckily with being friend with Aarat she helped me become stronger and more vigilant when it comes to fighting with the enemy, trust me when all this shit started I wasn't that string built.

Of course I did track and field but I was kinda scrawny, but with all the food that I ate and the training Aarat forced me to do with her I literally looked liked one of those sport fitness model you see in magazines.

When we started pulling up to the Sanctuary excitement came over me, hoping that Brent and Simon were already here so I can see them.

Not even waiting for Aarat to park the truck I got out the passenger side and started running towards the building.

"Aye Laura what are you doing, fucking impatient Puta!" I could hear Aarat yelling behind me, laughing I pushed passed the doors and inside the halls.

Knowing where they'll probably be I went towards the back where the loading room was, I ran passed some the other saviors and workers and they looked at me like I was in a rush.

I made it to the entrance of the loading rooms and opened the door, walking over to the railing I looked out through the crowd of the workers and finally spotted Negan talking to someone.

Screaming with joy in the inside to see he was talking to Simon, quickly I rushed down the set of stairs while trying not to trip and fall flat on my face.

When I made to the loading floor I made my way passed the workers that crossed paths with me, watching as Negan was still talking to Negan that Simons attention was captured when noticing me.

"Holy shit Laura is that you?!" Simon said in disbelief when seeing me, I smiled and rushed over to jump into his arms.

Figured that I was interrupting Negans very important talk with him but I didn't care that much at all, Simons big arms wrapped around my body and easily picked me up to spin us both.

Laughing I waited for him to finally let me down so my feet touch the ground, he still fucking looked the same but so much more handsome.

His mustache still looked like a catipilar and hair receding halfway, but boy did the muscles on his body stretched that shirt he wore very nicely.

Simon just stared at me with those captivated eyes as if trying to figure out what happened to me when he was gone for three months, he looked into my eyes and cracked a big smile on his lips.

"Jesus Angel you've grown up on me!" he exclaimed in disbelief, I laughed and nudged his arm.

"What are you talking about, I'm fucking twenty two and still looked the same as when you left." I said while rolling my eyes, but for some reason he still continued to look at me with those eyes.

"No somethings different..can't put my finger on it." he said while massaging his mustache, he knew that always cracked me up whenever he does that.

Negan coughed purposely loud to catch our attention, an amused smile plastered on his lips.

"As I was saying before lil miss Laura interrupted, Simon I'm glad to hear that everything went successfully with the second location. So tonight we fucking celebrate with a party." Negan boomed happily, soon everyone clapped in joy with hearing about the celebration.

Laughing I high fived Negans and Simon, all three of us started making our way back up the stairs and into the hallway.

I started telling Simon about what I was doing while him and Brent were away, the way I sounded so proud of myself made him smile at me.

"Sounds like Negan is really letting you become apart of the saviors." he said impressively, I looked at him with a grin.

"Aye maybe someday I'll be joining you and Aarat as uppermen." I said while nudging him with my elbow, Negan laughed right next to me while unexpectedly putting his arm around my head and rubbing the top of it playfully.

"Lets see if you can continue to impressive me Baby doll." he said teasingly, I groaned while prying his arm off me.

"Negan come on..your messing up my hair!" I exclaimed while trying not to laugh, chuckling he released his grasp on me and watched as I glared at him while fixing my hair.

Despite how sometimes Negan flirts with me or purposely get under my skin, we actually see eye to eye on a lot of things.

He's somewhat of an older version on Brent in a way, always watching out for us and giving me the benefit of the doubt when wanting to do more things.

"So where are we having this celebration at this time?" Simon asked Negan, he didn't answer right away, probably thinking hard about actually where to have it.

"Why not in the lounge area?" I asked, Negan had made a lounging area for some of the saviors to hangout and relax but most of the time Negans _Wives _use it.

"Hmm not a bad idea Angel, its big enough and you can bring us your music for entertainment." Simon said, I looked at him and then back at Negan for his approval.

He looked at me for a moment, debating about agreeing to the idea.

"Come on Negan, pretty please." I begged while kneeling on one knee, using my best puppy dog eyes.

Chuckling he shook his head and waved for me to stand up off the floor.

"Alright alright Sweetheart, I'll have the Wives start decoration and bring out the alcohol." he said, smirking in victory I shot up and sided hugged Negan.

"Great I'm gonna go find Brent and the others to get ready for tonight, seen you guys later." I said while pulling away and rushing down the hall, while looking back I waved to Simon with a smile.

He smirked back at me and waved in return, God why did you make such a perfect man.

**(Normal POV)**

Negan watched as Laura ran down the hall while looking back wave bye at Simon, he could see the obvious look in Simons eyes when he waved back to her.

When she disappeared down the set of stairs Negan couldn't help but point out the elephant in the _room._

"She has the hots for you." he said to Simon while grinning at him, Simon looked at him and then his expression changed.

"What are you kidding, come on Laura's not into me." he said while trying not to show how agitated he was becoming.

"Don't bullshit me Si, I've seen the way you two look at each other these past few years. I don't blame you, Laura has grown into a fine ass woman." Negan said them licked at the top of his teeth, he didn't notice but Simons jaw clenched when he said that.

" What I wouldn't give to have her as one of my wives,..but she keeps turning down my offer. But aye I'm known for not giving up so easily am I right?" he asked Simon, it took a moment for him to bite his tongue before answering.

"Damn straight you are."Simon said with slight sarcasm, Negan chuckled and then patted him hard on the back.

"Come on man lighten up, tonight we fucking party. Who knows maybe someone might get lucky." Negan teased then starting walking ahead of Simon.

Simon really wanted to let Negan hear what he had to say about those words about Laura, deep down he did begin to develop feelings for her. Since the first day laying eyes on her he that she was the most Angelic girl he'd ever saw.

But to his disappointment she Laura was underage, some guys wouldn't care about how young she was but Simon was gentleman despite his alter ego and temper. So he just continued to see her like a kid, but as she got older he couldn't stop from noticing how much she had changed.

The way her baby faced looked slowly matured into a look of a defined and beautiful woman, and how much of a difference her body changed from a little scrawny girl into oh sweet Lord.

Even Simon could admit that he knew that Laura might have a crush on him but hell how can she be into some one like him, not even to mention he was practically twice her age damn near almost forty this year.

Groaning Simon rubbed at his face to make this impure thoughts of Laura go away, even if there was a chance he couldn't risk having Negan being pissed off about it.

Although he'll do anything in his power to make sure Laura doesn't get bound up with him, Negan was Simons friend of course but he doesn't always agree on the things he does.

Trying to simmer down Simon went on ahead to his room to freshen up and get ready for tonight, the comment Negan had made get ringing in his ear.

_Maybe someone might get lucky...hmph we'll see_

Laura found where Brent and Maddie were at in the kitchen, she told them about Negan wanting to celebrate their victory at the second Sanctuary and having it at the lounge later tonight.

"Damn that sounds awesome." Brent said , Maddie sat right beside him shaking him in excitement.

"Finally we can all get our party on." she said giggled Laura couldn't help but pretend gauge at their affection.

Brent and Maddie have been dating for almost three years now, at first it was hard for them to get into a relationship. After what Maddie had gone through with Travis it was a slow process for her to being with a guy again, luckily Brent was a kind and understanding person.

It was hard the first year they got together, but with communication and gaining trust things really hit it off for them. Laura was happy that Brent has an relationship with something sweet like Maddie, it helped him come out of his shell.

Although there was also slight envy for the two of them, Laura admits she also wants to have the same relationship like they have bit come on finding guys here isn't a damn picnic.

Half the guys here are douche bags and in their fifties, although there were some that seemed good enough Laura had one guy she's had her eye on for awhile.

Although he's never seemed to make a damn move or show the same interest, but tonight she plans on changing that.

Knowing that Simon finally took notice on how much she's changed, Laura can't wait to show really how much of a woman she has become.

"Ok Negan asked me to provide the music for tonight, So Brent I need to borrow your speakers and adaptor please?"Laura asked innocently, he eyes her for a moment annoyed but then gave him.

"Ok I'll bring them when we head back to my room and get ready." he said referring to Maddie also.

"Just make sure you leave on time, last time you two went to go _get read_y it last two hours." I said with a teasing smile, Maddie blushed at me and covered her mouth from laughing.

Brent threw a piece of corn at Laura and ducked when she threw it back at him, laughing Laura exited herself from the table and began heading to her room.

After all her hard work and nagging Brent had talked Negan into letting Laura have a room to herself on the Saviors upper floor, it was a lot nicer than the room she was in the first two years.

Aarat was her room neighbour across from her and so was Brent, Simon was just four rooms away from hers.

After reaching to her room Laura shut the door and began going through the clothes in her drawers, surprisingly she had a decent amount of clothes, although most of it was still from when she first came here.

Finally after digging through all the clothes she found a decent outfit to wear, it wasn't to flashy but would show of Laura's figure in a good way.

Throwing it in the bed she went in her bathroom and started getting undressed to take a shower. Thank God that Negan and Simon got the heating water working again, last year for whole two weeks everyone had to take freezing cold showers in the damn winter.

Washing off her body with the lathered soap Laura couldn't help but get butterflies with the plan for Simon, finally that she's older and changed into a stronger woman she felt ready to show her true feelings for him.

Rinsing off the soap she quickly began scrubbing the tiny bottle of shampoo into her hair, the scent of coconut filling the air and making her hum in satisfaction.

Until her whole entire hair was covered in bubbles she rinsed it off and started heading out the shower. Grabbing a towel Laura starting drying off her wet legs and up to her hair.

Not even bothering to cover up Laura went ahead out the bathroom with the towel on her head, her feet padding in the wood floor.

Going to her drawers she pulled out the one with her bra and underwear, picking through a decent pair she put them on.

Without even knocking the door to her room opened, panicked Laura covered half naked body with the towel. Smirking humorously Aarat came in and shut the door behind her, earning an irritated groan from Laura.

"Jesus Aarat don't you ever knock, I thought it was someone else." she said while throwing the towel on the ground and putting her flannel shirt on,Aarat came over and poked at her butt playfully.

"Aww were you hoping it was Simon barging in on you naked" she teased, Laura shot her a side glare and smirked at her.

"Oh bite me bitch" she retorted, both of them couldn't help but laugh at the remark.

**(Laura's POV)**

Putting on my shoes I looked at my reflection in the mirror, to my surprise I look good. Yes the white shoes I found while being out with the Saviors were a pain in the ass to clean but they looked a lot better than beforw, plus they complimented the outfit.

Brushing out my hair I put it up in a messy cute bun ontop, looming back no waited for Aarat to look at me from going through my phone.

"What do you think...does it look to much?" I asked her, turning around for her to get the whole view.

"You look fucking good, I'm surprised you can keep your clothes so damn clean like that." she said surprised, smiling I went to go sit next to her on the bed.

"So are you wearing that to the party or do you wanna borrow one of my shirts?" I asked, she looked at me and shrugged.

" Nah I'm good, besides there's no one I'm trying to impress anyway. The only reason I'm going is for the booze and fuck with Simon." she said with a devilious giggle.

Simon and her get on each others skin like crazy, Aarat doesn't hate him it's just that he always has smart comments about her sexuality.

So she does what ever possible to fuck with him, sometimes Simon doesn't like it when she jokes with him but knows he deserved it at times.

Smiling I lay down on the bed and look at the ceiling, so many thoughts are racing my mind about what to do tonight. Placing a pillow over my face I screamed into it out of frustration, I could hear Aarat chuckle at my action.

"Are you nervous about finally telling Simon how you feel?"she asked earning another muffled scream from me, I could feel her lay out right beside me.

"I don't know why your nervous, I can tell that asshole is into you. And you're into him, Lord knows why but aye whatever wets your pearl." she said cheekingly, I couldn't help but hit her with the pillow out of embarrassment to her words being half way true.

Rolling my eyes I sat up and grabbed my phone from beside Aarat, luckily after all these years I managed to keep this thing in good condition.

The only time I ever mess with it is in my room, listen to music, watch movies I downloaded and look at all the photos on it.

Can't deny that it's still hard to not miss our family, but the photos and videos keep the good memories them alive.

Glancing at the clock on the wall it was a quarter to seven, glancing back at Aarat I saw she was fiddling with the pillow on her chest.

"You wanna go with me to see if the lounge is ready?" I asked, she looked at me and set the pillow to the end of my bed while getting up.

"What the hell, got nothing better to do." she said, stuffing the phone in my pocket I got up and headed out the door with her following behind.

Once I locked the door we both headed down the hall and up the stairs, the way the floors are leveled is workers on the first, saviors on second, the wives and lounge on the third and Negans room on the top floor.

Of course with him being the big man in charge he gets the whole level to himself and all perks with it, but I often wonder if Negan is hiding something underneath all the cocky ego of his.

Making it halfway up the stairs to the third floor I looked up to see David and two of the other Saviors coming down the opposite direction, I hate this guy with a passion .

He's been fucking with me ever since I turned eighteen, of course whenever Simon or Negan were never around he does this. But that doesn't mean I haven't complained to them about it, over the years his advances has dies down but he now always has something stupid to say to me.

"Aye Laura, looking mighty beautiful tonight" David said flirtatiously with a wink, I glared at him and then felt Aarat wrapped her arm around my waist pulling me close.

"Sorry _lil Dave_y , she's taken for tonight." she said while pecking my cheek, the other saviors with Dave laughed at the scolded comment to him and patted his back.

When we made it to the third floor Aarat blurted out laughing, I put my arm around her shoulders and grinned.

"Thanks back there, I wish that Fucker gets the iron one day." I said in annoyance and truth, shaking my body Aarat smiled.

"Don't mention it, now cheer up sugar tits lets get shit faced tonight. I brought my secret stash for later on." She said softly while patting on her cargo pants pocket, looking at her with a grin I sided hugged her.

"Fuck yeah" I cheered, we both walked side by side down to the hall and then made it inside the Lounge.

**(Normal POV**)

When Laura got there the wives where about finished fixing up the place for tonight as told by Negan, Amber had put up decoration Christmas lights dangling on the ceiling, Clair had set up a table on the end of the room with cups and bottles of liquor.

Sherry was helping Maddie put Brents speakers on the book shelves, making her was inside Laura could feel the wives attention go to her.

It was known at they didn't like her as much, dues to the fact that Negan favors Laura and talks of her often. Laura doesn't care little of them at all and quote honesty thinks their nothing but trash.

Why would you stoope so low as to being a man personal whore, not ever lifting a finger and working hard for your earnings but just spreading you're legs to get what you want.

"What's up ladies..oh wait I mean skanks" Aarat said with a grin knowing that it would piss them off.

"Oh look its the Lesbo and her friend." Amber barked back, earning a raised brow from Maddie and Laura.

"Oh come on Amber, try a taste of the dark side. You might like it." Aarat said while flicking her tongue between her two fingers, Amber cringed in disgust earning a chuckle from Aarat.

"I wouldn't Aarat, her vagina is probably dry and used up from earning all her shit." Laura said with a grin, she made her way towards Maddie to help with the speakers.

Mean while Ambers face was turning red at the insult, getting down from the step ladder she glared at Laura and decided to get even.

"Well at least I'm not some stuck up virgin brat." she retorted, Laura stopped what she was doing and glared at her.

It was known that most of the people here know that Laura was still a virgin, due to a certain someone sneaking into office and stealing her health file. The rumor was spread quickly the next day, at first it upset Laura but she never let that get in the way of her duties.

Cracking her neck Laura turned around and looked at Amber, folding her arms across her chest.

"At least I have more divinity than being a side piece tramp, spreading legs for handouts, wanna be wife trash slut. I'm more of a woman than you ever will be, that's why your "_husband" _wants me." Laura said with sly smirk, all the wives looked at her in anger and jealousy to her words being true.

"Alright ladies let not do this now, Negan wants us to celebrate our accomplishment so cut the bullshit and finish up." Maddie said while pulling Laura off to the side.

After a moment the tension in the room died down, some of the Saviors had already started showing up a bit early. Laura was setting up her phone to the speakers when looking up to the door to see Simon walking in.

She tried to hide the smile forming on her lips when seeing him, he was wearing a red flannel shirt and dark jeans.

The color really suited him, although he doesn't really like it that much but she figured he only wore it because he knew she liked it on him.

When his eyes happened to find her he waved to her with a grin, playfully winking at him she finished setting up her phone and started the first playlist.

Making way towards Simon Laura could see Aarat smirking at her from the side, rolling her eyes she walked up to him with open arms.

"Aye Pornstache" she greeted cheekingly, earning a deep chuckle from him and a tight squeezed hug.

"Ah ok ok Simon!" she laughed when he began rubbing his mustache against her cheek knowing it would tickle, letting go they stood side by side to each other.

"So how's it been with you while I was away, David giving you a hard time?" Simon asked her, Laura looked at him shrugged her shoulders.

"Sometimes yeah, but Aarat helps me tale care of it. He thinks that she's my boo thang" she said teasingly, Simon chuckled at her joke.

Laura remembers when Simon said that if David ever messes with her or goes to far, he'll personally take care of it. Negan doesn't even need to be there or notified first he'll take care of it.

Noticing how silent they were now Laura decided to think of something, tapping his arm she pointed to the table of alcohol.

"Want me to make us drinks?" she asked, Simon raised a brow at her with a smirk.

"Since when do you know how to make drinks." he asked, she grabbed his hand and started walking them in the direction of the table.

"I've learned some new things while you were away." Laura said with a flirtatious smile, while looking away she couldn't help but notice the glinted look in his eyes.

After Laura finished making hers and Simons drink Negan made his grand entrance in the Lounge, causing everyone to take a kneel and bow their heads.

Taking a glance at Aarat she couldn't resist making faces causing them to stiffle a snicker, Negan started walking into the middle of the room with Lucille in his hand.

"Well ain't this a fucking treat, all my favorite people together and wanting to celebrate our great accomplishment. And it wouldn't be done without my two right men right here everyone stand up to give Simon and Brent round of applause!" he boomed, in motion everyone stood up and clapped their hands to them.

Laura felt so proud of Brent for doing a great job in earning Negans praise, all that and Simon for getting another rank for being his right hand man.

"Alright enough with all the business someone give me a God Damn drink in my hand!" he said, within a second people were already handing him drinks.

Soon enough Laura and Simon were hanging out and talking up a storm, various times they were checking out one another without neither noticing.

Halfway into the conversations Aarat butted in, eating an annoyed expression from Simon.

"Aye Chico Suave, how's the catipilar on your face going?" she asked while poking his arm, he jerked it away and glared at her.

"Oh come on you know I kid Simon, but anyway how are you two kiddos doing?" she asked while pointing to him and Laura.

"Were doing fine talking until you're rainbow ass came and interrupted." Simon retorted while taking a a shot of his drink,Aarat made a fake pout.

"Awww my bad, but sorry I have to steal ya girl for a dance. Lets go bitch!" she said while pulling at Lauras arm.

She looked back at Simon with a defeated smile , he shrugged his shoulders and raised his glass to her with a smile.

When Aarat pulled her to middle of the room a few other people were dancing, it took a moment for her to hear what song was playing. Realizing what song was playing Laura got excited, downing her drink she grabbed Aarats hand and pulled her close to start dancing.

About five songs and six drinks later Laura was sitting down on one of the lounge couches all sweaty and slightly tipsy, Aarat went to go grab more drinks for them at the table.

Taking a moment to wipe the sweat off her forehead she felt someone take a seat in the side of her, tilting her head to see Simon staring at her with a side ways grin.

"You okay there Angel?" he asked, Laura could tell he was getting tipsy himself, although he's probably had years of experience of drinking.

Turning to sit at an angle to him Laura smiled and gestured her hand under her chin.

"Yeah I'm fucking fantastic, how are you holding up?" she asked, he groaned and swisher the liquor in his cup.

" I'm doing fucking good, about three more of these babies and I'll be dancing with a lamp shade on my head." he joked,Laura chuckled and began fanning herself.

"Is it me or is it fucking hot in here?" she asked, before Simon could think of saying something flirty back Aarat came and interrupted him.

"No it's you my lil hot Tamale."she said with a wink, Laura smirked and grabbed her drink out of her hand.

"Cheers to victory and having a good time tonight!" Aarat slurred in Cher and raised her glass in the air, smirking at each other Simon and Laura to raised their glasses and saluted.

Negan took a seat right across from them with Lucille planted right against the side of the love seat.

"Aye my two favorite girls, I was told by my wives that you were giving them a hard time." Negan said with a hiccup, they could tell he was shit wasted.

"We were only playing with them Negan, Amber was the one trying to throw stones at Laura and talk shit." Aarat slurred angry while shaking Laura next to her, Negans eyes danced to her and looked for an answer.

"Is that true sweetheart?" he asked in a concern tone, Laura took a sip of her cup and groaned.

"Yeah bit it's ok, Ambers words didn't bother me." she said in confidence, Negan nodded his head and took a long sip of his bottle.

Laura looked back to Simon and had an idea, downing her drink she set the cup on the coffee table and started pulling at his hand.

"Come on lets go dance." she said, Simon smiled at her and tried setting himself back down from her pulling.

"Nah Angel, not much of a dancer." he said, Laura pouted and pushed herself close to him, nearly almost straddling in his lap.

"Come on Simon, pleas!" she begged with her puppy eyes, Simon loomed at her and desperately held listed groan in the back of his throat.

The way Laura was leaning caused her shirt to lower down and show a lot of her cleavage and bust underneath the bra, finding her eyes Simon couldn't help but deny that look she was giving him.

"Fuck...fine you win Angel." he huffed in defeat, grinning in glee Laura yanked him up and held onto his hand while making their way to the middle of the room.

Negan looked at them and couldn't help but feel a tad envious of Simon getting to dance with Laura, Aarat took notice and leaned close to him.

"Do I detect some jealousy from our Sir Negan?" she asked with a grin, he glared at her for a moment while taking a sip of his drink.

"Fuck off Princess" he slurred half angry and annoyed,earning a drunken chuckle from Aarat.

**(Laura's POV)**

I pulled Simon away from Aarat and Negan, making it to the middle of the room I turned around and faced Simon.

The look on his face showed how uncomfortable and nervous he was with being up here, hoping to help ease him into it grabbed both his hands and placed them around me.

At first he went stiff but after a moment I felt him start to loosen up, he didn't really move his feet much but just swayed his body with the music. The song that was playing was on my favorite playlist, Sam Smith was my all time favorite artist to listen to.

The alcohol seemed to be helping me boost my confidence because I was just letting the music take control of my body and mind.

Holding onto Simons hands I was dancing and pressing up against him without fear, the feel of how hard rugged his body felt against mind made my stomach flutter out of control.

From the way Simons was looking at me right now must mean that he was starting to enjoy this, he started twirling me around and now placed my back against his chest.

We stayed this way the whole time dancing, me rubbing back to him with his hands grasping at my hips. If it was anyone else looking they would say that we were ever so trying to hold back ourselves.

My head lulled back against his chest, I could feel his face burying into the crook of my neck and inhaling. His mustache touched at my skin causing a sweet shiver to run down my spine.

If this would continue any longer I think I might just erupted in his arms at this moment, as I turned my face up and met his eyes the sudden urge to kiss him sparked in my mind.

The same look Simon gave me said he wants to do the same thing.

Before either one of us could make the same move the feel of some one bumping into us cause an untiming interruption.

Glaring back I could see it was Amber who walked past holding two cups in her hands, she looked back at us with a devilish grin.

"Oops my bad." she said sarcastically then made her way again towards where Negan was waiting for her with his drink.

_Fucking bitch_

When the song was over I pulled away from Simon and looked up at him with a embarrassed blush.

"Didn't take you as much of a good dancer." I said , Simon rubbed the back of his neck with a flustered smile.

"Neither did I, you have a way with moves Angel." he said with a flirtatious wink.

I couldn't help but smile at him, figuring that we'd go back to where we sat I began walking back till Simon grabbed at my hand.

"Aye I gotta surprise for you." he said with a smile, before I could question what he meant I was being pulled along with him. From the middle of the room and out the door.

The hallway lights nearly blinding me from the difference of lightening, when I felt the defending of stairs from underneath my feet I was becoming more curious to where he was taking me.

When me made it to the first floor he stopped and turned around to face me, reaching behind his back pocket Simon pulled out his bandana.

"Here I'm gonna have to blind fold you for this." he said, raising a brow I looked at him suspiciously.

"You're not gonna kill me are ya?" I jokingly asked, he rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Shut up and close you eyes Angel." he said, doing as I'm told I closed my eyes and felt as he began draping the bandana over my eyes.

Making sure the thing was tightly wrapped on he grabbed onto my hand, I felt as we continued on walking.

I could tell we were still going down the hall, having no idea of what was to come made this so exciting.

"Gonna have to watch your step here Angel." he said to me, when I slightly felt a decline from where we were walking a change of warm air hit me.

We were now outside, I was now feeling even more excited with wanting to know what he was doing.

The grass moving underneath our feet, when I almost tripped over Simons arms wrapped around me.

"I gotcha Angel..we're almost there." he said against my cheek, causing goosebumps to form on my skin.

Letting him continue on I gripped his hand tight and stayed close behind, about a minute later we came to a stop.

Standing there I was literally jumping like a little girl on the inside waiting on her birthday gift.

"Alright , when I take it off you can't open your eyes till I say so." Simon instructed, the way that sounded with double meaning made me blush slightly.

"Got it." I said, waiting patiently I felt him move behind me and began undoing the tie on the bandana.

It slipped off my face, still I had my eyes closed as Simon told me. I could tell he was making sure they were closed, and then he placed his hands on my ahoulders.

"Ok Angel, Open them." he said, opening my eyes I gasped in shock and amazement to what was infront of us.

Covering my mouth I walked up to the wooden fence where the black mustang horse was behind looking at me, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life.

"Oh my God, Simon..how..where did you find him?" I asked , literally I was almost about to cry.

"About a month into settling at the second Sanctuary I found him wandering around on his own, I remembered how much you loved horses. So I took him in and brought him back with us." Simon said with a smile, I looked back at the horse and then him.

Little tears began seeping through my eyes, over come with joy I rushed up and jumped onto him, my arms draping around his neck and squeezing.

"Thank you thank you Simon!" I said with the biggest smile, he wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up.

"Don't mention it Ange..." before he could finish I had pressed my lips against his, I didn't even realize what I did till I felt his go completely stiff against me.

When I opened my eyes I saw his widen and looking at me, pulling away I began to feel embarrassed at what I did.

"I'm..I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that." I apologized, I expected him to say something or anything.

But I was caught off guard when he cupped at my face and pulled his face close connecting our lips once again, at first I was taken back but then started to melt against him.

My hands went around his neck again and pulled myself closer to him, our lips were mashed against each other passionately.

I don't know if it was the liquor or the heat of the moment but the way his lips felt made every fiber in my body explode.

The way his facial hair felt against my skin now caused a moan to escape my mouth and vibrate against his, from the way his hands pulled away from my face and gripped my sides that had an affect on him.

Pulling me even more close against his body Simons lips trailed down my chin and down my neck, my one hand trailed up to grasp the back of his hair while the other grabbed onto the back of his shirt.

The tingling sensation between my thighs was getting more intense, responding to my lustful urge I moved my hips causing a deep stiffled moan from him.

In an instant I felt him raise me up in his arms and moving us back, it was until I felt myself being settled on one of the benches on the other end is way from the horse fence.

When I looked back at Simon his lips smashed against mine in a second and my hands grasped at his face, I could feel him move his way between my legs and held himself there.

My face heated up when something hard was pressed against my inner thigh, whimpering I moved my legs apart more to feel him even more.

" Simon.." I moaned against his lips, as he heard me his hands grabbed at my hair and pulled back allowing access to my neck and for him to assault it.

Biting my lip I trailed my hands down his chest and began making their way down to the buckle of his pants, eagerly and filled with lust I tried unbuckling his belt.

"Simon..please." I gasped in plea, when he felt me begin to touch his belt his hands darted down and retracted mine.

Looking up at him I could see the restraint in his face as he tried calling himself down and stopping me from what I was about to do.

" ..Angel..we can't so this." he said in a gruffed tone, I looked at him with sad and pleading eyes.

"Wh..why?" I asked in whimper and moan, his grasp on my hands tightened when I did that he had to step away from between my leg before reacting back.

" your drunk, and this isn't right." he said looking straight at me, I was starting to feel rejected to what he was saying.

"But I want you..I like you Simon." I said truthfully and tried pulling him back to me, but with a groan to restrain himself he put distance between us.

"I like you to Laura...but I don't think of you that way." he said before thinking wisely, I felt my heart crack in half to his words.

Getting off the bench I hugged myself self, so many thoughts were going through my mind.

_I'm so fucking stupid...how could I have thought this would work out like I'd hoped..of course he doesn't think of me like that.._

Not being able to stop it the tears silently rolled down my face, Simon seemed to notice right away and pulled me close to him.

"Shit..Laura..La.. Angel wait don't cry let me explain it right." he said, shaking my head I pushed myself away from him and ran back into the building.

"Wait Angel please.. Laura!" I heard Simon yelled from behind me and cursed in the wind, I didn't bother stopping once reaching inside.

Making my way up the stairs to the second floor I didn't even bother to continue on up to the third floor back to the party,reaching into the hall I ran to the door of my room.

Pulling out my key I tried putting I the key to put it in but the tears in my eyes made it hard to see where the key hole was, before I could attempt to do it again someone came up behind startling me almost out my shoes.

"Aye Laura I was looking for you, you left wit Simon and I figured...aye What's wrong?" Aarat said now in concern when she saw tears rolling down my face.

"Aarat I feel so stupid..." I said while wiping my eyes to stop from crying, before I could begin to talk again Aarat grabbed my arms and looked at me in concern and protection.

"What happened, did Simon do something to you?!" she asked in anger thinking that he caused me pain, shaking my head I looked at her in the eyes.

"No no no he didn't hurt me Aarat.. I just...He doesn't." I couldn't finish because the tears came back again, sighing Aarat pulled me into her arms.

I wrapped mine around her and cried into her chest, over come with embarrassment and regret to my actions I knew that my relationship with Simon was now fucked up because of me.

"Its ok sweetie..come one lets talk and smoke it out." Aarat said while grabbing the key from hand and unlocking the door without problem, I allowed her to pull me I to my room and shutting the door behind us. 


	8. A misunderstanding

**(Normal POV)**

Laura layed out on the bed with her head in Aarats lap, watching as she inhaled the joint in her and taking to her sweet time to blow the smoke in the air.

They've been passing it to each other for about a half hour now and Laura could start to feel the affects of it spark her body.

"I don't know what happened..everything seemed like it was going great and we were starting to enjoy ourselves. But when we...ugh what's wrong with me?" Laura asked in desperation while puffing smoke into the air, Aarat took the small finished bud from her hand and took a long drag.

"There's nothing fucking wrong with you Laura, Simon's just a dumbass who doesn't know what an awesome catch you are." She said while smoke puffed out her nose, her hands playing in Laura's hair felt pleasant and comforting.

"It felt like he was on the same page with me..but guess I was on. And fucking Amber interrupted us on the dancefloor." She said bitterly, Aarat snickered amusingly and shook her head.

"That bitch, ever since she came to the Sanctuary I always fucking hated her. Don't know why but just something bout her I don't t like." She said while putting out the bud from the bottom of her shoe.

Laura sat up on the bed and looked at the floor, her feelings about what Simon said still hurt.

"Should I go find him and kick his ass for you?" Aarat asked half joking but serious, she smirked and shook her head.

"No don't do that, maybe once tomorrow everyone is sobered up things will be better. Shit I should go get my phone and the speakers before someone steals them." Laura said, getting up from the bed she went and out back on her shoes.

"You do that, I'll spend the night here. Don't feel like going all the way back to my room." Aarat said while chucking off her shoes in the side of the bed, Laura looked at her with a raised brow.

"Your room is literally right across from mine." She said matter of factly, Aarat grinned and layed out on the bed.

"Yeah but I don't feel like getting up,fucking weed makes me lazy." She said,Laura laughed and shook her head at her unreasonable excuse.

Stepping out the room she made sure to shut the door behind her, with great effort Laura made sure to make it up to the third floor without falling.

The last time her and Aarat smoked together she vaguely remembered falling flat on her face from taking two steps towards the bathroom, she still had the bruise to prove it.

Getting her footing right she made it up the stairs and to the lounge, there were only about five people left in here.

The music was still playing, with a sigh Laura went over and started undoing the speakers along with putting the phone in her pocket.

There was groaning from a few people but she ignored them, turning around to see people finally deciding to leave and go back to their rooms. Before Laura could decide to do the same a whistle came from the other end of the couch, taking a good look to make out the back of Negans head.

"The hell are you still doing here Began, figured that you'd be tuckered out already or banging one of the wives." Laura said while making her way to sit next to him, he had his leather jacket off and the white shirt he wore started to form sweat stains around the collar.

"Ah I wasn't feeling in the mood tonight,had to hear Amber's fucking lip about it and didn't feel like going up just yet. So take it Simon showed the horse he brought back for you." He said making Laura relive that imperfect moment again in her head.

"Yeah he did... Was nice." She said in a plain expression, Negan could sense that something was off and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Did something happen sweetheart, usually you're fucking gleaming when ever Simon comes up in conversation." He stated, Laura looked at him and blushed a bit.

" No I don't" she lied, trying to not sound embarrassed.

"Yes the fuck you do, you always get wet whenever he comes around don't ya." Negan teased while smirking at her, Laura grabbed the couch pillow and hit him in the chest with it.

"Shut up!" She said then laughed, soon he started laughing to with his arm around her.

Despite of having a bad moment with Simon earlier it was good to have Negan make Laura feel somewhat better and make her laugh. Turning her head Laura met with his eyes that were staring at her, the atmosphere between slowly began to shift.

Laura could feel how warm Negans body was against hers, the way he was looking at her felt different from all the other times he does. It wasn't obvious that he had an interest in Laura, but all those times he's never taken actions towards her.

But from the strong smell of the alcohol coming off Negan he was wasted enough to make a move on Laura, deep down Laura doesn't have interest in Negan or see him in that way but the affect of the weed was making her slightly feel aroused from being wanted.

"Negan..you should get to bed." Laura said while placing her hand on his chest and pushing him to move away from her, his hand caught on to hers and gripped onto it.

"I don't see why you like him so much, he doesn't see you the way I do. You've grown into a fine, strong woman, hell all the men look at you..but they know better not to mess with you." He said halfway close to her face, Laura couldn't help but feel affected by his statement.

This was starting to get heated up, she could tell if something wasn't done now to stop it Negan would probably take it as a sign to continue things further.

"Let's get you to bed right now, come on get up." She said while grabbing at his arm and pulling him to his feet, groaning Negan allowed himself to move along with Laura out the room.

" You always have a way of giving me blue balls you know that Laura?" He teased with half annoyance, rolling her eyes they both made it up the stairs to his office door.

Making sure to open it first Laura helped Negan hallway inside and open up the other door to his room, Negan perched himself on his desk and looked at Laura.

The lust in his eyes still lingered and made Laura feel a type of way, patting at his back she began making her way back to he door before his voice stopped her.

"Sure you don't want to stay...could help take your mind off Simon." He said sensually and seriousness, Laura looked back at him and almost felt tempted to accept his proposal.

But her conscience was yelling at her for even thinking about sleeping with Negan, no matter how hurt she was about Simon and the affect the weed was making her body react she wasn't going to do something that regrettable and stupid.

"Goodnight Negan.." she said and made her way out the room, Negan frowned and shook his head when she shut the door behind her.

Making her way down the stairs Laura was arguing inside her head about what would happen, of course she wasn't thinking clearly with her head because of the liquor and weed.

Sighing Laura rubbed at her face and tried to think of sleep once she makes it back to the room.

Reaching down to the second floor she started walking down the hall, knowing that she'll have to cross Simon's room before reaching hers.

The thought trying not to see him right now was on her mind, not even when making it halfway passed his door before it opened all of a sudden.

Laura stopped in tracks and tried not to get worked up by him some how possibly knowing she would be walking by, groaning she turned around to prepare for an awkward conversation.

But when she came into eye contact with the person coming out the room her heart literally dropped down to her stomach, Amber was looking back into the room with a suggestive smile before finally noticing Laura.

She looked at her with a daring smirk and put her hands in her hips, Lauras hands clenched so hard into fists that her nails dug into the skin.

"Oh I'm sorry..did you need Simon for something. He was to preoccupied at the moment." She said with a wink and turned around to walk down the hall, not even bothering to shut the door on her way out.

Laura felt her whole entire body boil up in rage, being upset wouldn't have been the best words to describe how she was feeling inside.

The sheer thought of going up to Amber and wiping that cocky smile right off her face was what Laura wanted to do, but knew what would happen if she did.

Before she could think to think of moving away from the door Simon peered out to look down at Amber and then turn to realize she was standing there, his eyes widened when knowing that she saw Amber leaving out of his room.

That what she was thinking that him and her did something unthinkable in there, but that wasn't the case at all even though that's what it looks like.

"Laura...we didn't do an.." he tried to explain but Laura turned right around and started walking back to her room again, she could hear him coming from behind.

"Laura...Laura wait. Angel please let me explain." He pleaded while grabbing at her hand but she yanked it away from his grasp, she turned around and stared up at him with tears forming in her eyes.

"There's no need to explain, so what if you fucked Amber. Not like we're _together_ or anything so why do you need to explain yourself, you can screw whoever the fuck you want Simon. Just make sure Negan doesn't find out." She said bitterly and then opened her door, Simon tried stopping her again but the door slammed shut right in his face.

"Laura please open the door... Angel please." She could hear Simon from behind the door, her hand gripped tight in the doorknob but didn't dare turn to open it.

Leaning against the door Laura felt the tears slipping down her cheeks.

Covering her face she slid down to the floor in a sitting position and stifled her sob from behind her hands.

When a loud bang came from the other end of the door she heard Simon cursing to himself and then walk back down the hall , his bedroom door slamming shut behind him.

Removing her hands Laura felt the tears rolling down her wrists and down her chin, sighing exhaustedly she began kicking off her shoes and rolling off her pants.

After doing that she made her way to the bed where Aarat was already in out like a light, slowly easing in while not waking her Laura pulled the blanket over them and turned off the light next to the bed.

She grabbed onto the pillow in between them and held it tightly close to her, the tears seeped into the fabric making it wet but she didn't care.

The thought of Simon even being with Amber made her stomach churn in disgust, feeling so hurt and betrayed by him doing that after the intimate moment they shared together.

_Damn you Simon...why did you hurt me?_

**(Laura's POV)**

I woke up with the worst headache I've ever had, luckily I didn't have a hangover or feel sick after last night.

Groaning I turned on the bathroom sink and started splashing my face with water, hoping the cold water will wake me up even more.

Looking up to see how puffy and red my eyes looked from all that crying, when I woke up the side of my face was literally soaked with my tears from the pillow.

I prayed that today that I wouldn't have to see or speak to Simon at all, after what I saw last night I don't think I can look at him the same again.

From the bathroom I could hear Aarat waking up, her grumbling muffled against the pillow.

"Fucking shit...what time is it Laura?" She asked trying to get up from the bed, I came out the bathroom wiping my face off with a towel.

"Eight-thirty, almost time for our shift to start." I said with plain emotion, throwing the towel into the basket in the corner I went over to look I to the drawers for something to wear.

"Shit I gotta get ready!" She gasped shooting herself off the bed, scrambling to get her pants in and shoes.

Without even bothering to say goodbye or anything she ran out my room to hers while shutting the door.

I couldn't help but snicker to myself, finding a black tank top I threw it on and then a pair of blue jeans. Should probably take a shower from dancing last night, but to be honest I didn't really care right now.

Throwing my hair up in a messy bun I put on the gun holster around my waist and started walking out the room, making sure it was locked behind me.

Halfway down the hall I could hear Aarat rushing out her room and coming up from me, turning around to see her huffing out of breath.

"Shit I hope Negan is still knocked out or we're screwed." She said , rolling my eyes I patted her back.

"Don't worry, it's only ten minutes till we start. Plus his ass was wasted as hell last night, how much you wanna bet he'll be late for inspection?" I asked with a grin, Aarat looked at me and raised her brow.

"Bet you my stashed whiskey bottle and a Twinkie bar." She said, taking her hand we shook on it.

Twenty minutes later while we were going over the rations guess who finally decided to stroll from his slumber, giving me a nice snack on break and a late night drink.

After finishing up counting the canned food and boxed noodles, I went ahead to find where Brent and Maddie were.

When I left with Simon last night I didn't see them at all since, a couple ideas of where they snuck off to made me cringe.

Making it out the kitchens storage closet the smell of what the cooks were making for lunch filled the air, it smelled really good to my surprise.

Taking a quick peek at the boiling pot, it looked like stewed deer meat and potatoes.

_Mmmm_, _thankfully we found that deer while scavengering yesterday_.

"Aye Laura." Maddie's voice called over from the other end of the stove, she's an aide for the cooks in the kitchen.

"Hey, this smells pretty damn good." I said taking another whiff over pot, taking the spoon I was about to take a little taste till Maddie slapped it out my hand.

"No ma'am, you will not tamper with my Creation." Maddie said assurtingly, she always gets serious when cooking and always makes sure no one tries to mess with her food.

_Me being the main one._

"Geez Rachel Ray, I just wanted a taste test." I mocked with a smirk, eating another wack on my arm.

We both started laughing till a figure coming in from the other end of the kitchen caused me to silence myself, Simon was walking in with Negan beside him.

Of course causing the workers to stop what they were doing and take kneeling position, doing that I made sure that my eyes were right on the ground.

Not wanting to even look up and catch Simon glance at me, listening I could hear Negan make his way over towards us.

"Damn something smells fucking good. Maddie sweetheart what's cooking?" Negan asked with enthusiasm, without looking I could tell she stood up and opened the pot to show him.

"It's deer meat and potato stew sir." Maddie said, earning a delighted smile from Negan.

"Shit that sounds good,alright everyone as you were!"he ordered, soon everyone stood up on their feet and got back to work again.

As soon as I got up Negan was looking in my direction, hoping that he had forgotten everything that happened from his drunken outbursts.

" Aye sweetheart good fucking morning, how'd you sleep last night?" He said while nudging my left arm.

"Just peachy, Aarat and me had a little talk session and then KO." I said nonchalantly, the feel of Simon's eyes burned at my skin.

"Seems like you two gotten alot closer over the years, something you ain't telling me sweetheart." Negan asked suggestively, deciding to play along with his question and the fact that what happened with Simon still bothered me.

"Wouldn't you like to know." I teased with a side ways grin, pushing at Negans arm I noticed a change in Simon's demeanor.

"Since we're on the topic of Sunshine, she was looking for you to go check out your horse. Something about the kids wanting to see it." Negan informed, the thought of the kids made me feel delighted inside but I kept a neutral expression.

"Alright, Maddie I'll see you later at lunchtime. Might wanna give Lord Negan here a glass of water and pain killers ." I teased while pointing to him, earning a chuckled grin from him.

Making my way between him and Simon I couldn't help but glance up at him, his eyes locked into mine and I couldn't help but see how aggravated he looked.

"Simon." I said plainly and then continued on my way out the kitchen, the impulse to look back at him made me feel bad.

But the thought of Amber coming out his room came up and again made me feel bitter about him in an instant.


	9. Unknown danger

**(Normal ****POVS**)

Laura made her way cross the courtyard to the horse fencing,seeing the small group of children looking at the horse Aarat was grooming. One of the little girls saw her coming towards them and ran over to her.

"Laura!" She yelled cheerfully while jumping into her open arms, Laura hoisted her up in the air and swung around.

"Daisy, how's my sweet pea doing?" She asked while placing Daisy on the side of her hip.

All the kids from the sanctuary loved Laura and Brent, it's like they had this loveable attraction with children.

"Good, my tooth finally came out!" Daisy said showing Laura her the missing front tooth in her mouth.

Laura smiled and started walking over towards the other kids, they all saw and greeted her with bright smiles.

"Hey kiddos, what's with the surprise visit. It's not my birthday yet." She said playfully,everyone giggled at her.

"We want to see your horse Laura." One of them said, looking at them and to Aarat Laura had another idea in mind.

"Tell you what guys, who wants to ride it with me?" She said, instantly all of them cheered and jumped in excitement.

After helping each kid over the gate and letting them pet the horse Laura watched and finally noticed that she never given him a name yet, rubbing her temple she tried coming up with something.

_Let's see... Max.. Maximus..nah to Disney... Phoenix_...

" Laura what's the horseys name?" Daisy asked tugging at the leg of her pants, looking at her Laura rubbed at the top of her head.

"I don't know sweet pea, how bout you help me pick a name." She said, Daisy looked at the horse and stuck out her tongue trying to think.

For a next minute Laura watched her and looked at Aarat who was helping the kids up and letting them touch the horses face.

"Spirit..I like Spirit." She heard Daisy finally say, that actually suited him pretty well.

"Spirit..I like it Sweet pea!" Laura said then raised her up in air, Daisy squealed in joy and wrapped her small arms around Laura's neck.

"Alright who wants to take Spirit for a ride first?" Laura asked, everyone raised their hands and asked to be picked first.

It took about almost an hour for almost everyone to get a chance to ride Spirit along with Laura, during the whole time some of the saviors would stop and watch as the kids were having the time of their lives.

Laura deeply enjoyed spending time with the kids, it made her feel like a big sister that she never got a chance to be. Especially Daisy, the first time Laura met Daisy's mother she was just one.

Back then since Laura couldn't help the saviors Negan had placed her with helping out with watching over the kids that would come to the Sanctuary, and automatically they all fell in love with her.

Laura came up along the fencing to have the last kid to hop down from Spirit, Daisy was in Aarats arm when they walked up to her.

"My turn...my turn!" She said eagerly, Laura was about to pull her up when Aarat cut them off.

"I don't think it's safe for you squirt, you're to little." She stated, the look Daisy gave her almost made Laura laugh.

But then she instantly felt bad when Daisy began to cry, her little lip quivered while tears slipped down her cheeks.

"She'll be fine Aarat, I'm gonna be holding onto her tight." Laura assured causing Daisy to smile a bit, they looked at each other for a second before Aarat gave in and handed Daisy up to her.

Laura made sure she was settle right in front of her before beginning to have Spirit start moving, looking over she signalled for the Savior at gate entrance to the horses to open it.

He looked at the both in skepticism to having her out with Daisy, Laura looked at him with an annoyed expression.

"Don't worry we won't go far." She said, shaking his head the guy finally opened the gate to allow them to pass over outside.

Laura tapped the back of her heel against spirit to have him move forward, Daisy held onto spirits fur but not tight enough to hurt him.

"Ok Daisy you ready?" Laura asked earning a excited nod from her, making sure she had support of Daisy Laura tapped on Spirit three times signalling him to move faster.

The sound of Daisy's laughter could be heard as they dashed across the open field, Laura smiled as she held Daisy close to her as Spirit continued on.

It was probably not a good idea to go on passed the open field away from the sanctuary, but Laura was having to much fun with Daisy to even think about it.

This was as close as she could probably get to having a little sister experience, and she knew that nothing bad would happen to Daisy on her watch.

"This amazing!" Daisy cheered, her little hands rose in the air as the wind blew through her orange locks.

Laura was happy that Daisy is getting to experience the beauty of the outside the Sanctuary, it's a shame that she'll never get to enjoy more of it how things were normal back then.

It was about a few minutes later that Spirit slowed down at Laura's command, bringing them to an open field area and a water pond. This place was a secret spot where her and Brent would sometimes come by and hash it out together, Aarat would come here to but to smoke it out and take a dip.

"Laura... Thank you for bringing me out here." Daisy said while looking back up to her, Laura stared down at her and smiled.

" Don't mention it sweet pea, least I can do for your birthday." She said then patted the top of her hair, Daisy giggled and rubbed at Spirits long hair.

Setting herself off Spirit Laura helped Daisy down to the ground and walked along with her to the end of the pond, the their reflection coming off the water.

"Aye sweet pea, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Laura asked as she grabbed a small pebble and flicked it across the pond.

Daisy picked up a small pebble and tried doing what she was doing, taking a moment to really think about her answer.

"I want to be like my dad, he was brave and strong man. At least that's what mommy tells me." She said, Laura couldn't help but feel a tinge of pain hearing her say that.

Of course Laura knew Daisy's father before he had passed, he died from a herd of walkers. It was so hard to know that her mom found out, even though he was around for the first year of Daisys life she doesn't really remember him.

"That's good Daisy, I know you'll grow to be strong and brave just like Frank." She said.

"What did you want to be when you were l..little Laura?" Daisy curiously asked, taking a second Laura tried to remember.

Finally remembering she started to giggle at the thought of it now, earning a confused expression from Daisy.

"What's funny? She asked with a smile, shaking her head Laura threw another pebble at the pond.

"I wanted to be a pirate." She admitted, Daisy giggled at her confession.

"That's pretty silly Laura, Pirates are bad guys." She said, Laura smirked at her.

"Yeah but I'd be a good pirate, stealing from the bad guys and giving them to little monkeys like you." She said while picking her up and tossing into the air.

"Hey! Haha" Daisy laughed while falling back into Laura's arms, they both laughed along each other.

It was about time for them to leave so Laura called Spirit back over to them from where he was eating at the grass, while she did that Daisy was looking around when spotting someone just a few yard away.

"Aye Laura who's that man?" Daisy asked while tapping at her arm, Laura quickly turned around and saw what she was talking about.

Her breath hitched when seeing a walker strolling across towards them, she felt so fucking stupid for not even noticing him sooner or realize they were causing so much noise to allure him.

Of course Daisy wouldn't know what he was ,she hasn't stepped foot outside the Sanctuary or seen one before.

"Daisy... Grabbing my hand and lets go." Laura said as she grabbed at Daisy hand to pull her towards her, Spirit was trauting up towards them.

"Why...is he not a good guy?" Daisy asked, Laura couldn't fully explain to her what he was because she's too young to understand.

"Yes Sweet pea, he's a bad man and we need to get back home before more like him come." Laura said half truthfully while placing her up onto Spirit.

"Ok..but Laura there's more coming from behind him" Daisy pointed out, looking out Laura could see a few more of them following his path.

" Shit.. ok. Come in Spirit take us home." Laura said after rushing up onto him, turning him towards the direction of where the came from.

With great haste they pulled out of the field and began heading towards the universe marked direction from where Laura brought them, Daisy was gripping on to Spirit so she wouldn't lose her balance.

"Laura please tell Spirit to slow down!" Daisy asked loudly, before Laura could respond back something lash out from the side of them.

Spirit got startled and started hurdling fast into the opposite direction from Laura was directing him.

"Spirit heel.. heel boy!" Laura yelled in demand but he wasn't paying attention to her, she tried get a good grip on the harness leash but lost her balance and was thrown off.

"Laura!" Daisy screamed when she too fell off Spirit after her, Laura hit the ground pretty hard.

Her head got it hurt pretty hard, making that bad ringing noise in her ears. Looking over she saw Spirits body moving away faster and faster away from them, disappearing past the trees.

"Laura..Laura are you okay.?" Daisy asked while trying to help her sit up, Laura managed to set herself up without making her headache worse.

"Yeah sweet pea I'm fine, we need to get back to home now." She said mean while pulling out her gun from the back pocket.

Daisy noticed something trickling down the side of Laura's face from the forhead.

"Laura.. Laura you're head it's bleeding." She pointed out in worry, Laura wiped at it and saw that she was right.

_Fucking shit...why did I think it was a good idea of being out here?_

Groaning I'm aggravation and pain Laura picked up Daisy in one arm while holding her gun in the other, the pain in her head was starting to worsen but she needed to find some place safe for now.

**_(Simon's POV)_**

All day the look that Laura gave me this morning was still on my mind, it fucking bothered me so much to the point where every little things someone said pissed me off.

Negan had me going over protocol for heading to the out post later in today with Brent and the others, I wasn't even paying attention to what they were saying with what was going through my mind.

"Simon... Simon. Si"Brent yelled capturing my attention, looking across to see him staring at me impatiently.

"Where the hell is your head at man, been telling you about the numbers for five minutes now." He asked, rubbing at my face I groaned in frustration.

"Sorry.. just didn't get enough sleep last night." I somewhat lied, feeling a sudden nudge on my right side.

"Yeah I bet you didn't, seeing how you left with Laura." David commented with a smugged look, I could see Brent's expression tense up.

Fucking prick said that on purpose knowing damn well how Brents protectiveness over his sister.

"Fuck off David, Brent walk with me." I sneered then began pulling Brent off to the side away from everyone, I could feel the anger radiating off him.

"What the hell happened with you two last night, now that he said that I noticed how different Laura acted this morning." Brent stated, sighing I rubbed at the sweat building up on my forehead.

I knew that I was probably gonna get my ass chewed out but if he heard it from someone else or Laura it'll look even worse on me, nervously I grabbed Brent by his arm.

"Ok..yes something did happen with me and Laura." I said, instantly Brent pushed my hand away and grabbed at the front of my shirt.

"You fucking slept with my sister Simon so help me God!" He sneered while bringing his hand up to throw a punch, I grabbed at his hand and brought it down.

"Calm your fucking dick boy I didn't screw your sister!" I yelled, in the back of my mind I really wanted to but I couldn't bring myself to do that.

_Plus we were both drunk, I couldn't take advantage of Laura in that vulnerable state._

Somewhat calming down Brent released his hold of my shirt, backing up he collected himself for me to explain myself.

"Listen, I brought her outside to show her the horse I brought back with is from the other place. She was happy and then kissed me." I explained, Brent took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Damn it...did something else happen because Maddie said that she was acting strange when you showed up with Negan." He asked, fucking knew that she would say something to him.

"Yeah...I felt wrong for kissing her but I said something wrong and got her upset. Later on that night...she saw Amber leaving my room." I said quietly so no one could hear the last part.

" You slept with Amber?!" Brent whispered in shock, shaking my head I pointed my finger at him.

"No I fucking didn't, she came barging in my room and tried to get me to sleep with her, when I refused she left the room all angry. She must've said something to Laura because she was pissed the fuck off." I said, Brent seemed to get the gist of what I was saying.

"So you guys kissed, but you didn't feel right because of how Laura feels towards you." Brent said, I looked at him confusingly.

"What do you mean how she feels about me?" I asked, he raised a brow and shrugged his shoulders.

"Dude I might not be my sisters favorite at times, but she always comes to me to confide in. She likes you man, despite my many reasons of not fucking agreeing to it." He said with a side smirk, shaking my head I rubbed at the back of my neck.

"Jesus. Am I really that bad. Can't be worse than Negan, that fucker had more woman than me and you. Trust me I might be a prick but I actually have respect for women." I stated, Brent looked at me for a moment before speaking out.

"Do you respect my sister?" He asked out of nowhere, I couldn't help but feel a bit offended he would even ask that.

"Of course I fucking respect Laura, the hell do you take me for Brent. I've been there for her and you guys since the beginning of building up this damn place. Who's the one that makes sure that she's safe when you're not around, and has been keeping an eye on these shit for brains." I sneered, he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Don't make it seem like I asked you to do all that, you've done that all on your own. Just admit that you like Laura." He said, I glared at him for not being able to come up with something to argue back.

_Fucking shit...why does it have to be so damn hard to accept it already_

"Even if I was to have feelings...I'm not saying that I do...it doesn't feel fucking right Brent. She's not a kid anymore but whenever I see her it's like I'm looking at a stronger, fierce spirit woman. "I said ,this was fucking harder than I thought.

At first I thought that Brent would be unreasonable if I told him what happened, but he acts like it was to be fucking expected finally.

"Listen.. I might not like the idea of Lauras feelings for you because I'm her older brother and a father figure to her at the same time. But she's a grown woman now and I have no right to control what she does in her life. If I remember correctly, you're the one that said to let her find her own ways." Brent pointed out, couldn't help but chuckle at his statement.

"Fucking got me there...but it's not like it matters now because she won't let me talk to her." I said in frustration, Brent folded up the paper still in his hand and tucked it into his pocket.

"I'm pretty sure if you just explain to her what went on she'll get a good understanding." He said, nodding in response I looked over to the gate for a moment till something coming from the distance caught my eye.

Keeping my eye on it I realized that it was Lauras horse, but there was no one riding him.

"What the fuck..open the gate now!" I yelled as I made my way towards it, Dwight began opening them as I slipped my way pass and grabbed ahold of the horse.

"Aye boy what happened?" I asked the horse, rubbing at the side of him I tried not to over panic myself with awful possible assumptions of what happened.

Aarat and Brent came running over to me and they both looked just as worried hell as I am right now.

"Where are they, Laura and Daisy?!" She asked in panic, I looked at her in anger and shock.

"She took Daisy out with her, fucking shit Brent grab the damn truck and the guys. Aarat tell Negan what happened and to not get Daisy's mom panicked." I said before getting in the horse, not even waiting to hear either of their response I tapped my heel for him to start moving fast.

So many bad ideas of what could be happening to them right now, shaking my head I tried to make quick haste and hoped that the horse would take me to the where the last place they were at.

_Fucking Laura.. please let them be alright._

_**(Laura's POV)**_

"Laura..Laura...don't fall asleep." I felt Daisy slightly shake my body, we managed to find a abandoned looking shack to hold up for the time being till I felt better.

The bleeding finally stopped but I think that fell kindof gave me a concussion, my vision kept in going in and out, plus it felt like the world was doing rollercoaster loops.

"Sorry Daisy, a few more minutes and we'll be fine to head back home." I said trying to assure her worried expression.

It was quiet outside, a bit too quiet for my comfort. What ever the hell that spooked Spirit off was fast and not a walker, but one things for sure I need to get Daisy back safe before we run into it again.

Ever so slightly I began standing up in my feet, trying the very best not to stumble backwards when I stood up.

"Alright sweet pea, I need you to grab onto my hand the whole time and to not let go. Stay close by me and whatever happens to close your eyes. Alright sweetie." I said to Daisy while placing my hands over her face, she nodded her head and wrapped her small hand around mine tightly.

Reaching for my gun I peeked out the crack of the door to make sure there was no sign of walkers before pulling us out into the open, the throbbing pain started getting worse but I brushed it off.

"Laura..who were those people out in the field.. they looked scary." Daisy asked, trying to avoid her question I began to quicken our pace.

"They we're just bad people ok sweetie, nothing to worry about." I tried to assure her, she made a pouty face and tried pulling her hand out of mine.

"Don't lie Laura..I'm not a baby and stupid. They did not look like normal people." She stated, groaning I looked back down to her.

Of course she would be aware of this one day,but I just didn't want to be the one to explain what was going on with the world right now.

"Daisy...those people.. they're really sick."I said, she look at me in confusion.

"Sick... shouldn't we help them. Maybe we can help.." she tried saying but I shook my head.

"No Daisy they're not sick like how you get with a cold...badly sick to where nothing can cure them...we have to stay away from them or they'll get us badly sick also." I said, the look in her face showed that she was trying to process everything in the best that she could understand.

"How would we get sick by them?" She asked, before I could think of a good way to respond a sound of twigs snapping in the distance startled us both.

Quickly I pulled Daisy right beside me and looked at out surroundings to see where that came from, my heart was racing out of fear.

"Laura what is it?" Daisy whipered,I could tell she was getting scared by how tightly she was grabbing at my leg.

My eyes darted in every direction drastically, till something in my peripheral vision. I gripped onto Daisy and place my hand finger over her lip to let her know to not make a sound.

Standing ever so still I watched as the figure appeared to be not aware of our presence from this distance, this one was definitely a walker no doubt in my mind. But for some reason it's stature was a bit odd from all the others I encountered with.

Its body seemed fidgety and out of place, slowly as possible I started moving me and Daisy backwards to make our exit and get away so it won't see us.

Making about ten steps back I was starting to feel relief that it wasn't able to hear us, but regrettably I was to busy keeping my eyes on it that I didn't see what was coming up behind us.

"Laura!" Daisys voiced screamed piercing at my ear drums, turning my head to see a walker literally right up behind within arms reach of us.

Yanking Daisy back I didn't blink twice and pulled the trigger shooting right through the fuckers skull, in retrospect I should have told Daisy to look away but now was not to time to censor what was happening.

Looking down at her I could see how terrified she was, but when I looked back behind us I could see that we captured it's attention. All the color to my face drained when I got a good look of it's front, it looked so horrifying.

Not even in a split second the things fucking makes it way over to us, what threw me so much is that it was running.

_What..how the fuck?!_

_"_Laura.. Laura he's coming!" I heard Daisy's voice scream pulling me out of my thoughts, I hauled her up into my arms and started hauling ass out of there.

I couldn't look back to see ,but from how bad Daisy was screaming and crying for me to move faster it was right on us.

Without dropping my gun I pushed myself over the limit of my past running skills to give us more distance away from it.

"Daisy is he still there?!" I yelled over my shoulder for her to hear, she looked back behind us and shook her head drastically.

Out of now where something tackled the side of me causing us to fall and Daisy to get loose from my arms. I crawled up over to pull us up till another one of those things shot itself onto me.

I heard Daisy screaming for me, using all my strength I put my foot against it's stomach and pushed it off me. Pulling out my pocket knife I repeatedly stabbed into it's skull, when I whipped my head around I looked to see Daisy missing.

Daisy..Daisy?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as my heart began increasing it's pace.

Within that moment I heard her voice calling out to me, it sounded so petrified and loud.

"Laura..Laura help me?!" Her voice screamed on the east of me, in a split second I ran into the direction of her cries.

When I started getting closer I could see an old rooted in tree, but one of those things we just saw caught my eye as it was trying violently to tear and break through the bottom of the small hole.

"Daisy?!" I screamed as I'm making my way towards it, her voice came directly from inside the hole from the tree.

Gripping at my knife I tackled at the thing from behind, it's body thrashed and tried to turn around to attack me but immediately I stuck the knife right into the side of it's face.

Not wanting to risk the chance of not killing it completely I retracted the knife and stabbed at it's head again and again, the adrenaline and rage I felt for having Daisy safety being at risk was making my head go crazy.

When what was left of it's face seemed gone I threw the lifeless body down to the ground, my breathing coming out ragged and short.

Looking over I could see Daisy's body coming out from the hole in the tree, quickly I began helping her out and into my arms.

"Oh my Daisy I'm so sorry. Baby are you hurt..did you get bit or scratched." I asked her in panic, she shook her head no and stared at me.

Her small body was trembling like a leaf and eyes swelling with tears, immediately I felt utter guilt and disappointment for having this happen.

"Oh Sweet pea I'm so sorry, come here" I said while hugging her small body , her arms wrapped around my shoulders and the front of my shirt began seep with her tears.

When another sound of something moving in the distance Daisy began to panic in hsyteria, her body clung onto me for dear life.

"Laura they're coming back..please don't let them hurt me please please!" She cried uncontrollably, pulling myself up with her clutching at my body I readied my knife to attack.

Fucking can't believe I lost my gun!

When the sounds started getting closer I was preparing myself for the inevitable, if something were to happen to Daisy I'll fight to my last breath for her to make it out alive.

It was closing in on us, soon as the thing came out in the open I was about to attack till the horse figure and person riding it make my heart nearly stop.

"Oh my God Simon!" I screamed in utter relief and joy, Daisy to was screaming in happiness to see it was him.

When Simon's eyes met with mine I instantly knew that he was fucking pissed beyond comprehension, literally his eyes were drilling holes into my head.

"Get on the God damn horse, right now!" He ordered angerly, not wasting no time following his order I rushed over and placed Daisy in front of him then made my way behind him.

Not wasting time Simon kicked his heel and directed Spirit out of there and onto the path where he came from, I held onto the back end of his shirt to hold myself close to him but I could feel the tension coming off him.

I knew I was going to hear a fucking ear full when we get back to the Sanctuary, hell there was no telling what Negan was gonna do to me.

_I could get the damn iron for this shit!_

"Simon... I'm really.." I tried speaking but the harsh tone I. His voice cut me off.

"Don't say shit to me till we get back, you're in deep shit Laura." He growled , I bit my tongue and tucked my head down against his back shamefully.

_He's really fucking mad at me, but that's the least of my problem...good going Laura_


	10. Promises

**(Normal POV)**

Throughout the travel back home it was silent, Laura had her arms held slightly around Simons body for support.

The tension between them was awkward, even though Simon was so relieved to have her and Daisy safe he was beyond pissed off.

Daisy was dozing off a couple times, gently Simon leaned her back against him so that his arms would cage around her.

Laura pulled away from Simon wiping at the tear stains on her face, there was no telling what awaits for her when they get there.

The thought of Negans wrath made her skin crawl and a cold chill run down her spine.

Of course there would be a consequence for putting not only herself but a child at risk, the last time someone messes up Negan didn't hesitate to make a good example out of them to the others.

"We're here..." Simon stated over her shoulder, Laura peeked over and immediately felt scared approaching the gates.

Hearing someone yelling over the gates started open, Simon guided Spirit through and over to where he was put in captivity.

Everyone started gathering all around us, Aarat was running up to them and helped Daisy off Spirit.

"Oh my God, I'm so glad you guys are safe." She said hugging onto her and then pulled Laura into a hug as she got off Spirit also.

She couldn't help but cry when some of the kids came over and hugged onto her and kept asking Daisy what happened.

"Daisy.. Daisy what happened... Everyone said that you and Laura was in danger!" Damian asked, she was trying to explain in the best way she could but then her mom came and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Mommy!" She cried in joy, the look of relief and panic showed on her mother's face.

When her eyes met Laura she could sense anger coming off them, of course she would be that way and she had every right to be angry.

"Amy..I'm so sorry I didn't mean.." she began saying but she took a step forward and sent a sharp slap to her face.

Not even a flinch or react back,she touching at her cheek and looked at her with teary eyes.

" What the hell were you thinking, having Daisy outside the sanctuary and putting you both in danger?!" She asked, for some reason Laura couldn't find her voice.

Suddenly feeling like a child again being scolded by her mother, Daisy was looking between them both with tears rolling down her face.

Laura couldn't help falling to her knees in front of them, grasping onto Amy's hand.

"I'm so sorry Amy...I'm truly sorry.," She apologized while wiping away at her tears.

Amy looked down on her, of course Laura had always been there for them since the beginning of them coming here and knew that Daisy looked up to her like a older sister.

There was no doubt in her mind that Laura would ever let anything happen to her, but it was the fact that both of them could've been killed and the thought of loosing Laura would not only tear Daisy apart but her as well.

"Get up Laura...I said get up." Amy said then repeated when Laura stared at her with both fear and confusion.

Timidly Laura did as she was told and looked at her waiting for what to come next, if it was another slap then she'd take it willingly without a flinch.

Setting Daisy on her feet she stepped closer to Laura at arms length, without hesitation she pulled Laura into her arms.

At first she was taken back by Amy not slapping her again, Laura felt her arms squeeze tight around her and a few tears hit against her shoulder.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, both of you could've been killed and that would be the end of me." Amy admitted with a shaken tone, feeling a sharp tug at her heart Laura wrapped her arms around Amy and apologized again.

Daisy came up to them and squeezed in-between them, her small arms wrapped around Laura's front in attempt to hug her.

Before neither them or anyone could speak out a loud voice boomed a few feet away from where they we're standing in.

"Laura!" Negans voice called, her face immediately went white when she saw the rage in on his face.

Pushing Amy away she stood in front of her and Daisy, it would be a lie if she wasn't shaking in her shoes at this very moment.

"Negan before you say anything, please let me explain what happen." Laura pleaded, but to no avail he pryed at her arm and pulled her close in tight death grip.

"What the fuck were you thinking taking a child outside the Sanctuary, huh?!" He questioned, Laura was to scared to think of a response.

This was probably the first time she's ever really seen Negan utterly angry with her, of course there were times that he was annoyed or even upset with Laura.

But this was another level she's ever witnessed from him.

"Don't go quiet now give me a God damn answer! You realize that you broke fucking rules and regulations?!" He asked, she nodded her head frantically knowing well that he was going to refer to the punishments.

"Yes...yes I do.. but please Negan sir.." before she could finish her sentence he shoved her away from him, Laura landed on her side and looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Aarat get fucking Iron ready!" He ordered, causing her and Amy to look horrified at him.

Simon's jaw clenched at wanting to speak against this, of course Laura should be taught a lesson for what she did but he didn't need to take it this far.

Amy walked over to Negan with timidation but tried to reason with him.

" Sir please, don't do this she doesn't deserve that harsh punishment." She begged, Negan glared at her and pointed to Laura.

"She fucking broke the rule of letting kids outside this place and almost put your daughter at risk . You should be fucking enraged with her.!" He boomed, Amy shook from his voice.

"Yes sir I understand, but Laura doesn't deserve to be ironed for a first time mistake." She stated, Laura looked at Amy in admiration for her trying to stick up for her to Negan.

But to both their own reactions Negan walked past her and began walking to Laura, forcefully pulling her up to her feet and gripping at her arm.

"It doesn't matter if this is her first rule break ,I can't just let this ahit slide and not expect her not to learn a lesson. Aarat get the damn Iron!" He ordered again when seeing Aarat still standing with the kids with a shocked and scared experience.

Soon as Negan began pulling Laura along with him as she walked Daisy grabbed at the back of her legs in attempt to hold her back.

"No please don't hurt Laura.. it's all my fault!" She begged sobbingly, causing Negan to stop in his tracks and look back at them.

Her small body clinging onto Laura's leg, tears running down her face and snot coming out the end of her nose.

"Please Sir Negan don't hurt hurt Laura's face...it was me that wanted to go outside." She said, Laura felt Negans grip loosen up causing her arm to fall back to her side.

Attempting to calm her cries Laura knelt down eye level to Daisy and placed both hands at her sides.

"Daisy don't say that, it's not your fault ok. I broke the rules and have to pay for the consequences, please don't put the blame on yourself." She said while using the end of her shirt to wipe the tears in her face.

Daisy continued to cry and turned her attention to Negan, next she did something that shocked Laura and everyone included.

Running passed her Daisy reached out and hugged at Negans leg, catching him off guard and to stand stiff at not knowing what to do at that moment.

"Please Ne..Negan.. please don't hurt Laura...please.. please." She sobbed against him, her tears seeping through the fabric of his pants.

Simon looked at Negan and saw his dark demeanor change dramatically at Daisy heart felt plead, Laura stood up and looked back to Amy who was trying not to cry at her daughter's attempt to help her.

Negan looked down at Daisy's sobbing form against him, in hesitation his hand touched at the top of her hair and smoothed over it. Her head snapped up to looked up at him, her eyes red from crying and lip quivered.

Instantly he knew that she had won over his heart,with that being said he reached down and placed her in his arms.

"You really are God damn adorable kiddo, alright then Laura doesn't get the the bad Iron , so no more crying." He said as he wiped the tears on her cheeks.

Laura felt a huge stone of relief come off her shoulders at his words, turning around at the contact at Amy wrapping her arms from behind and smiled with joy.

"But there still has to be some type of punishment for Laura , so what do you think she should do sweetheart?" Negan asked Daisy curiously, she put a finger over her mouth to think.

"Maybe...she could clean all the dishes after dinner?" She said, Negan erupted in a fit of laughter at her coming up with that kind of punishment.

"Alright then, you heard the little lady. Laura after dinner tonight you're on dish duty till ever fucking dish is spotless." He ordered in a mean demeanor till Daisy put her small hands over her mouth at him cursing.

"Sorry sweetie I know..bad Negan." He said in a joking manner, Laura couldn't help but smile at the great change of the outcome.

But something tells her that after everyone goes back to whatever they we're doing, she would have to talk with Negan and her brother in a private matter of another type of real punishment.

**(Laura's POV)**

As a man of his words Negan made sure that ever single dish was used and dirtied up at the end of dinner for everyone, no one not even the kitchen crew was allowed to help me clean up.

Of course Brent talked to me after everything that happened earlier with Negan and Daisy, he was upset about my careless thinking. But he was just glad that me and Daisy came back safe, though if it wasn't for Simon showing up we would've probably still been out there right now or worse.

No use complaining and adding more time to my punishment I started right ahead as soon as everyone cleared out the kitchen, using up the multiple sinks to have the dishes soak up and get all the gunk off.

Even the pots and pans to make dinner was still on the stove, damn he sure knows how to make a non-punishment into a real punishment.

From my good guess it's been about two and a half hours of washing the entire dishes to the point where my hands were extra prun and wrinkly, fucking looked like I had my grandmothers hands replaced with my own.

Taking a slight break I dried off my hands completely and began putting away the pots and pans away from the drying racks. Now that I thought about it, probably should have brought my phone down so I could've listened to music.

_Nice.. couldn't thought about that two God damn hours ago?!_

All I want to do right after this is take a nice hot bath and go straight to sleep, hopefully sometime tomorrow after everything has calmed down I could talk to Negan .

I was about to put away the last stack of dishes that finished drying when a sound of the door opening behind startled me, looking over my shoulder to see it was Simon coming through the door.

My mouth tightened shut at seeing him, after earlier we still haven't talked.

Even though I really did want to speak with him, the same angry expression he gave me when out there was still on his face whenever he'd look at me.

But now that expression was gone and replaced with a sincere look, although the memory of our small fight came to my mind again.

"If you're here to yell at me get it over with, been dealing with bullshit these past two days and I just want to go to sleep." I stated in annoyance, picking up the plates I started stacking them up in the cabinets.

"Look...I know you don't want to hear what I have to say right now. But we need to talk about what you saw yesterday...and what I said after we.. kissed." He said , the sound of his voice following me from behind.

Putting up the last plate I held myself against the counter, I couldn't even look at him because the mental image of Amber leaving his room would make me do something I would regret.

"I don't want to hear your bullshit excuse, if you fucked Amber I don't give a damn. But don't try to lie to me just so you can stop feeling guilty." I said then began turning around to walk past to leave, but his hand grabbed on my arm and pulled me back.

"Simon let me go!" I demanded, but he placed me back in front of him, using the counter behind me and his body to cage me in place.

"Please just listen to what I have to fucking say..Angel please." He begged me, calling me the nickname I missed so much.

Trying to not feel butterflies flutter in my stomach I crossed both arms over my chest and looked up at him with a bleak expression.

"Fine... explain yourself then." I said , watching as he rubbed at the temple between his eyes.

"Listen...what you think you saw last night didn't happen.. believe me I wouldn't touch that fucking bitch if Negan ordered me to." He said, from the sound of his voice it seemed like he was being honest but I still felt skeptical.

"Then explain why was she coming out of you're room, or did she just happen to be to drunk to find the whores quarters" I asked, he can tell that I was having hard time believing him.

"After we kissed... I tried looking for you back at the lounge but you weren't there. Negan tried getting me to stay and drink with him but I didn't feel like being there without you, I could tell that him and Amber we're getting on each other's nerves as I left. So when I went back to my room I tried to calm down and hopefully find you , she followed me back and just came right in." He said, from what he's saying I can say that he was being honest about Negan and Amber arguing.

"So you guys... didn't do anything?" I asked for the last time, unexpected I felt his hand brush back the strand of stray hair behind my ear.

I couldn't help but blush at the affectionate gesture, his eyes found my own.

"She tried to get me to sleep with her, but I turned that bitch down. Just the thought of how hurt you would be if I did crushed me."he said, biting my lip I tried to not feel emotional to his soft words.

Finding my courage I reached to touch the front of his chest, I could feel the quick pace of his heart against my palm.

"Some part of me knew that you didn't do it, but what you said to me after we kissed last night really hurt so I didn't want to listen." I admitted, and I was still hurt from what he said about not liking me the way that I like him, maybe even more.

Sighing he reached and grabbed the top of my hand, his warm skin comforted my cold skin from all that washing.

"Angel... I won't lie and say that I didn't really did enjoy that kiss with you. And that...my feelings for you aren't the same." He said, I felt my heart quicken at the idea that Simon had confessed his feelings for me.

"You like me...but why did you push me away when we kissed?" I asked, looking in his eyes the need to kiss him was coming over me.

He must've sensed it because he took a deep breath and pulled away from me to give us some distance.

"Because... it felt wrong to kiss you..I'm fucking old enough to be you're father and...oh I'm sorry that came out bad." He said nervously when seeing my face fall a bit when saying that, shaking my head I smiled fondly.

"No it's fine...but it doesn't bother me if your a bit older..I actually like it." I admitted as my face blushed warmly, looking up I saw his eyes flicker at that.

"Yeah?...Cause to be honest I'm almost up to Negans age." He stated, intrigued I wanted to know how old he actually is.

Never once Negan had given his real age, and to my surprise I never once asked how old Simon was.

"How old is Negan by the way?" I asked curiously, he looked around to make sure no one else was around.

"He's fifty-two, but you didn't hear it from me." He said, finding out more about our leader and that he was older than I imagine him.

"Wait so you're younger than Negan, damn the man looks good for his age." I said in surprise, Simon's face seemed displeased causing me to smirk a bit.

"Oh come on don't look at me like that, you're pretty hot for your age too..which is?" I asked, he couldn't help but chuckle at my compliment.

"I'm forty-five Angel." He said, raising my brows I was pleased to finally know his age.

I actually didn't mind that Simon was twice my age, he was in good shape and seemed to age like fine wine. Plus he was a really good man, not like some of the assholes here.

He was nice, sweet to me and treated me like a human being. Whenever I'm around him I feel safe and untouchable, knowing that he would protect and never do anything to hurt me.

"Simon...I know that you feel weird about this..but I'm willing to see where this goes.. that is if you'd want to." I said stepping close and closing the gap between us, looking into his eyes I grabbed his face and pressed against his lips.

For a second Simon pulled away to look at me, his face was unreadable for a second till his hands grabbed at my arms to press me against him and smash our lips back together.

It caught me by surprise at how assertive he was but then I beg to meet in his touch, my arms wrapped around his neck to pull me up close as possible with him.

His strong chest felt undeniably good against mine, making me feel so small against his big frame. His mustache tickled at my nose causing me to giggle a bit, pulling away I felt and heard our heavy breathing.

"Sorry... Your pornstache tickles." I chuckled softly, Simons laugh vibrated against me causing a warm feeling to pool down my stomach.

"Oh you like my Pornstache Angel." He teased, his flirty remark made me bit my lip.

"Yeah I do...kindof wonder how it'd feel against other places." I said seductively, for some reason I was feeling brave to speak openly to him.

Simon seemed caught off guard by my dirty confession, his adams apple bobbed as he tried to calm himself.

"Jesus Christ Laura...can't say shit like that and expect me not to think about... fuck." He groaned then placed his face against my neck, his warm breath tickling my skin.

"I'm sorry... We can take things slow.. just really happy that you like me." I said then hugged him, his arms wrapped around my small frame and he picked me up a few inches off the floor .

"I'm glad to Angel." He whispered against my ear and kissed my neck, before I could say anything he started rubbing his mustache against me purposely.

"Simon.. Simon ok stop it..stop it it tickles!" Screaming as I'm trying to get out of his strong arms, our laughter filled the kitchen.

Suddenly Simon's radio went off startling us from our tickling fight, placing me down he reached at his back pocket and pulled out the radio.

"Repeat that again to me." He said, a few seconds later a voice responded back, from how clear I could hear it was Brents voice.

" We're heading out to the post in ten minutes, Negan wants you at the gates." He stated, Simon response back was quick and he put the radio back.

"I thought you guys were heading out in the morning?" I asked in confusion, usually Negan doesn't go outside the Sanctuary at night.

Simon shrugged his shoulders, this was just as new to him as it was to me.

"Looked like something is really important at the post, eh probably just some randoms trying to take our shit again won't take us that long." He said than began walking away, but quickly I grabbed at his hand to stop him.

"Wait Simon...you guys can't go out there." I said, ever since coming across what ever the hell those things were earlier today something told me that it wasn't a good idea for them to go out there specially at night.

"Angel don't worry.. its just going to be a quick check up and we'll be back...maybe we can continue our kiss later on." He flirted with a wink, trying not to be flustered I started to get serious.

"No seriously Simon tell Negan to postpone till tomorrow, look when I was outside the Sanctuary with Daisy...we saw these things.." I began explaining, he didn't seem to quite understand.

"They looked like walkers..but they were something entirely different..Simon they could fucking run..and they had these growing fungus and shit all over them...if there was four of them Lord knows how many of them are out there." I said as beginning to feel myself get shaken up by the thought of being more like them out there.

Simon could see that him and the guys going was really affecting her, so why not have her tell Negan and seeing if he'll listen to her request.

"Look...let's go to the gate and talk to Negan, tell him what you saw and see if he'll take into consideration to call off the run till morning..deal Angel?" He asked, nodding I squeezed at his hand

"Ok..let's go before it's too late." I said, Simon began walking out of the kitchen with our hands together and making our way outside the building.

**(Normal POV)**

Laura followed by Simon with her hand in his, she never really realized till now that his hand was so big compared to her own.

As they we're making way towards the gates the rest of the Saviors who were going on the run we're getting ready, panic started coming over Laura as she wondered if Brent would be going with Negan too.

"Laura..aye Laura wait up!" the sound of Aarats voice called out, looking over to see her running towards them.

" Hey you coming on the run too?" She asked Laura, Laura shook her head no.

"No I'm not, don't tell me you're going with them Aarat?" She asked, knowing full well that Negan always had her come with him on his runs.

" Yeah, why is something wrong?" She asked, looking over past her there stood Brent talking to Negan at the gates.

Letting go of Simon's hand Laura made her way towards them without answering Aarats question. Brent was still talking to Negan when his eyes drifted to the corner and saw her coming towards him.

"Brent..Negan..I need to talk to you." Laura said while getting close right beside them both.

"Not right now Laura we're about to head out." Negan said, he signalled for Simon to come on over.

"You guys can't leave." She said, causing both of them to look at her, the way Negan seemed confused and somewhat irritated made Laura nervous.

"Why the hell not Laura?" He questioned with a curious tone, Brent stared waiting for her reason to say this.

"I don't think it's safe...for you guys to leave...listen I saw something earlier today." Laura began to explain but Negan cut her off.

"Trust me sweetheart whatever it is you saw it's probably nothing we can't handle.. alright men load up the trucks and let's go!" He ordered, but before he could do anything else Laura grabbed at the arm of his jacket.

"Negan please listen to me, you don't understand what I saw..these things were not walkers!" She said, in a split second Negans hand grasp at her neck causing Brent and Simon to stand there shocked and not knowing what to do.

His grip wasn't to hard or tight but the fact that he didn't seem to like the fact Laura is telling him to do something against his own orders is making him really aggravated, her hand loosened from his arm but still she had to tell them.

"These things aren't like the walkers we've encountered before Negan, they we're fucking fast and nearly almost killed us." She stated, his hand on her neck pulled away.

"And who's fault is that.. listen to me Laura whatever big and scary thing you saw out there trust and believe we can handle our shit." He stated arrogantly, Laura couldn't help but be stubborn about not wanting them to go.

"Then let me come with, so if those things do show up you can see what I'm talking about." She said, Brent pulled her by the arm beside him.

"No Laura you stay here, after what happened today it's best if you stay here where it's safe.", Laura became angry at what Brent said.

Pushing him off she pointed at him with anger in her eyes, she couldn't believe after all these years he was still trying to treat her like a fucking child.

"I'm not fucking letting you go out there without me Brent, you don't know what you guys are putting yourselves into, I'm fucking going with you!" She stated, within second Brents face contorted in rage causing Laura to look scared for a moment.

" If you hadn't fucking almost gotten yourself and Daisy killed today then Negan would let you come with, you're staying here and that's fucking final Laura!" He yelled, Laura couldn't help the goosebumps forming on her skin and how shaken she became from his rage.

Simon could sense the tension beginning to form between the three of them, coming up beside Laura he placed his hands on her shoulders to ease her.

"Negan..Brent she's just trying to look out for the Saviors and our safety. If she's really trying to tell us not to go, shouldn't we at least take it into consideration?" He asked, Laura could see Negans with the face of trying to think all of this over.

Brents face softened when seeing how hard Laura was trying not to get upset at him yelling at her, of course whenever he yelled at her as a child he'd would always break when seeing her cry.

Sighing he walked over and grabbed at her gently, gesturing to Simon for them to step aside to talk.

"Laura I'm sorry, just that today you literally almost got killed and that fucking almost broke. I can't let you get hurt..if it makes you feel any better I'll stay here." Brent suggested, for a second Laura really appreciated his apology but then she knew that Negan would want his second best man by his side.

"No.. no go with Negan...but just..please be safe." She said then gave him a loving hug.

Pulling away both of them went back to Negan and Simon, it seemed that they too we're in conversation.

"Alright Laura, since you seem to think something unknown is out there we'll take extra precaution. If anything were to happen I'll radio Simon and he'll come with back up and you." Negan said, knowing that Laura felt a bit at ease.

"Everyone start loading up!" Negan ordered, pretty soon the trucks engines started up like a chorus.

"Negan" I called out cause him to stop and look back at me.

"Please watch out for Brent." I asked, smiling he walked back and patted the top of my head.

" I look out for him sweetheart, I promise." He said , smiling I nodded in gratitude.

Watching beside Simon everyone finished loading up in the trucks and Brent waved good-bye to us as the gates opened and truck exited the sanctuary.

Not knowing that this would be the last time I would see him like this.


	11. Dark times

**_Authors note(sorry this chapter would be a time lapse in coverage of what I couldn't come up with in the last chapter. I'm going to go back and possibly add more to show what happened before all this or in the next chapter I'm going to have Laura have a flashback to what was going on._**

**_Hope you enjoy this chapter and better have a box of tissue._**

_**(Laura's POV)**_

My head was pounding up a storm when I began coming to, opening my eyes I was staring up at the ceiling of the infirmary room. Reaching up I placed my hand against my temple where the pain was coming from, I could feel a big bump against my skin.

_Fucking hell, I should've slowed down with Spirit when we came through the gates._

Suddenly everything that happened last night came to me, where the fuck was Brent?

Looking around the room I saw that no one else was in here, frantically I rushed out of the medical bed.

Hissing from the pain I instantly felt from the right side of my rib cage, going through the discomfort I went to push open the door and began walking down the hall.

"Where is he..where is he?" I kept asking myself, panic started to come over me.

Trying to escape those things was like something off of a horror movie, I've never been so terrified in my life but I had to push through my fears to go and rescue Brent.

He was shot at by the bastards who ambushed the outpost and then those things came out hearing the sounds of gun fire.

Holding onto my side I rushed down the hallways trying to find anybody or anyone who knew where Brent was, Simon, Negan or even fucking Dwight for all that I care.

Going down the stairs I can hear voices coming up towards me, reaching half way down I saw that it was Maddie and Carson.

"Maddie!" I called out loud , her eyes shot up to me and she rushed up to pull me into a hug.

"Oh my God. I thought you were dead!." she exclaimed , I pulled away and looked at her while wiping away at her tears.

"I'm fine I'm fine, do you know where Brent is?" I asked, for some reason Maddie's expression changed to grief, looking over at Carson she tried spill out what was caught up in her throat.

"Laura...he's in quarantine." she spitted out, when she said Quarantine my heart literally dropped down to my stomach.

"Qu..quarantine..why is he in quarantine?" I asked in a stutter, Carson walked up toward us and placed his hand on my arm.

"He was bitten last night...Laura I'm so sorry." he said in a sad apologetic tone, I shook my head in disbelief to hearing this.

"No..no he didn't get was shot at.. he told me." I said in reassurance, I want to believe what Brent said to me wasn't a lie.

"Laura there was no bullet wounds on him, he was bit..." Carson said causing my breath to hitch.

My mind began going back to the familiar setting and emotions I had once experienced before, shaking I clenched my hands into fists.

"Where was he bitten..." I asked, realizing where it Brent was holding was supposedly where he was shot at.

"His shoulder ..." Maddie answered, I felt the tears begin to silently fall from my eyes.

Clenching my jaw I tried to not let myself break down right here on the stairs, I have to see this for myself to known that its true.

"How long does he have left?" I asked looking at Carson, Carson looked back at me with a sadden look.

"He's getting the fever and constant sweating, I'm predicting he has only a few hours left" he stated, shaking my head I reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Can you take me to him?" I asked.

"Laura..I don't think you should.." he tried to go against my request but I clenched his hand tight and cut him off.

"Please!" I begged with tears dripping down my chin and onto the stairs, having no choice Carson escorted me and Maddie down to the floor where they aided the quarantine people who were to sick or were bitten.

Before going to the room where he was placed, Carson handed me and Maddie a mask to go over our mouth and nose.

"You both need to wear this while being in here, be careful and not touch you're face till cleaning off your hands before leaving." he informed then began stepping into the room.

When he opened the door I saw Negan and Simon were standing at the other end talking with each other, both eyes roamed over to me and their demeanor changed to grievance.

"Hey..sweetheart" Negan said while trying to hug me, but respectfully I put my hand against his chest to decline the attempt to comfort me.

When I looked at the other end of the room I saw Brent layed out on a bed, his appearance made me stifle a sob against my hands.

I walked over and knelt down to him, latching my hand over his.

"Oh my God Brent.." I gasped while looking over his body, this clothes from last night looked a lot worse then I realised and his skin was pale and clammy.

His eyes drifted open and looked up at me, a soft pained smile spread across his lips.

"Hey squirt..Glad you're alright.." he wheezed out, looking closely at his shoulder blade I could see the infection from the walkers bite getting worse and spreading through his skin and veins.

Even the blue color in his eyes were nearly changing to a sickly mold green, I was trying to not feel angry at him but I couldn't help my emotions from coming out.

"Why didn't you tell me?.." I asked with my hand tightening on his, he could tell how much this upset me.

"I didn't want you..to worry.." he groaned out while trying to reach up to cup my face, angry I pushed his hand away and glared at him.

"And you think hiding it from me would make things better?!...Why Brent..why!?" I screamed while gripping at his arm.

Brent was trying hard not to let the sight of me breaking apart affect him but the tears seeping through his eyes were winning the fight.

"Laura I'm sorry...I just wanted to protect you from what'll happen." he said with dread, pulling my arm away I looked down at him with sickened pain at what he was referring to.

Shaking my head I looked back at Carson and Negan in desperation.

"Wait..there has to be something you can do ..Negan please." I begged , the expression both them gave made me almost fall to my knees.

"Laura there's no way out of this..." Brent said to me, all of a sudden a hand was placed on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry Laura, this is all we can do."Negan said, my blood began to boil in rage and mixed emotions.

Without even thinking I turned around and slapped him hard across the face, Maddie and Brent yelled at me.

"You son of a bitch! You promised that you would look out for him!" I screamed at him, Negan looked over to me with a deep red print forming on his cheek.

"Laura..sweetie... Listen to me I didn't mean for this to happen." He tried to say, but all my rage was consuming me.

Reaching back I grabbed the pistol in my pocket and aimed at him.

"This is all your fault!" I yelled as hot tears rolling down my cheeks, not thinking clearly to what I was doing but the overwhelmed emotions I began feeling clouded my better judgement.

Everyone appeared to be panicked by me drawing my weapon at Negan, but he didn't seemed scared or threatened by this at all still held out his hands in surrender.

"You said you'd bring him back to me safely, but lied to me and just left him behind!" I screamed while looking him right in the eyes.

It felt like it wasn't me that was talking or aiming the gun ,I was so overcome with anger that I lost control.

Before I could begin pulling the trigger Maddie ran over and yanked me back in a tight hug causing the gun to fly out of my hand.

"Maddie get off..He needs to pay...Let me go!" I yelled hysterically while trying get out of her grasp, all I felt was rage pumping through my veins.

"Laura calm down please..think about what you're doing!." she stated while trying to pull me away from clawing at Negan , Simon reached down and retrieved my gun.

"You promised me. You're a liar..you're a liar...you promised!" I sobbed while staring into his eyes showing how torn apart I was, not being able to look at him anymore I slumped my head down in defeat.

Brent started coughing and wheezing, catching my attention I went back over and hovered over him. There was dark blackish blood seeping through his mouth and out his nose.

Ripping at the paper towel hanging on the wall over his bed I tried to wipe the blood away off him, but his hands stopped me in mid motion.

"Laura..stop please..there's nothing we can do..." he said in acceptance, my eyes looked into his and I knew that there was no fighting.

Feeling worthless I sat down at the edge of the bed and stared at him, my hand placed over his arm clenching onto the fabric of the shirt.

" Laura if ...you and Maddie want to leave before we.." Carson tried explaining but I already know what he was trying to say.

"It should be her ..." Brent wheezed out, my heart instantly shattered at his words, buried memories started flashing before my eyes to this same scenario.

" Brent don't I can't do that again I can't." I pleaded with sobbed breaths, he reached up to wipe the tears rolling down my cheek.

" I'm sorry... But I want you be the one to put me at peace." he said with pleaded eyes, sobbing weakly I shook my head and placed my hand over while tightening my finger through his hand.

Maddie put her hand on my shoulders and looked down at Brent, she was crying uncontrollably at what's going to happen.

Shaking his hand went to reach over to hers and squeezed it tightly, there were no words to describe how much Brent loved Maddie.

"Maddie..I love you.. Watch over Laura for me so Aarat and her won't do any stupid shit." he said with a weak laugh, both of us smiled at his demand and hugged him deeply into his chest.

Brent looked over at Negan and shook his head in silent agreement, glancing over I watched as ushered Maddie away from us and out the room, Simon looked back at me with a pained look on his face before following behind them.

Negan walked over towards us and stopped at the side of me, listening as he unclipped the gun from his holster and placed it down the bed beside my knee.

"I just want to say... I'm so s..." ,he tried to finish his sentence but I cut him off.

"Just get the fuck out!" I barked with anger at his sad attempt of apology, sighing Negan patted Brents chest softly before making his silent exit out of the room.

It was just me and him now, this scenario felt like just before almost five years ago.

Only I was the one in medical care because I was malnourished and having to help carry Brent because he twisted his ankle badly, the realization of how much we've changed since then surprised me.

Despite how things were fucked up and out of our control we'd always be there for each other, Negan looked out for Brent because I wasn't always allowed go with him when the Saviors did rounds.

But those words that he promised me about Brent coming back safe to me were ripped to pieces, I can never ever forgive him for abandoning him when he was in dangers way.

"Laura.." Brents voice called pulling me out of my pained thoughts, my eyes met his and he placed a genuine smile on his lips in attempt to make this better.

"Brent..I'm so sorry...this is all my fault..I should've been there for you and none of this would've happened.." I cried while wiping at my face.

"Don't..its not your fault Laura...sometimes things happen that we have no control over...but no matter what happens I want you to be strong for me." he said to me while grabbing at my arm.

" ok..ok." I said, hesitantly I reached down to grab the gun, but before I could touch it he stopped my action.

My eyes locked onto his to see what he was doing, he groaned through the excruciating pain building up inside his chest.

"Can..can you sing for me before..." he asked , I could feel my shattered heart being stomped on at his request.

"You know I don't sing anymore.." I cried while trying not to laugh , he smiled at me while rubbing at the tears in his eyes.

"But I missed the way you used to sing to me..mom and dad loved it when you did", he brought up making me feel even more heart wrenched.

I truly did missed when I would sing for Brent and our parents but ever since the out break I stopped because it brought back happy and sad memories that'll never be again.

Shaking my head I accepted his request, wiping my tears away and trying to calm myself.

"Any song requests?" I asked with a choked back sob, he shook his head and smiled.

"You know the one I like, Dad used to play it constantly from his radio. But you make it sound better." he said with heartfelt compliment, laughing I tried getting my composure right.

"_...When we were young we were the ones_  
_The kings and queens oh yeah, we ruled the world._  
_We smoked cigarettes man no regrets_  
_Wish I could relive every single word"_

Brents hand clench onto mine tightly, his smile never leaving his face but I could see that the tears coming down his face.

"_We've taken different paths_  
_And travelled different roads_  
_I know we'll always end up on the same one when we're old_  
_And when you're in the trenches_  
_And you're under fire I will cover you"_

I started choking up because a sob building up inside my chest, using the sleeve of my sweat shirt I tried my best to keep singing.

"_If I was dying on my knees_  
_You would be the one to rescue me"Sniffling"_  
_And if you were drowned at sea_  
_I'd give you my lungs so you could breathe"_

_"I've got you brother-__er__-__er__-__er_  
_I've got you _brother-er-..."

I couldn't hold it anymore as the tears folded down my face and onto Brents shirt, my hand clenched onto the gun.

The sobs escaped from my mouth unwillingly, more than anything I prayed that this all was just some fucked up nightmare that eventually will wake me up at any moment.

If it was possible I could turn back time to when he had left with Negan, maybe if I had pestered a bit more about coming along with then just maybe I would have been able to save Brent.

"Its ok Laura.. Thank you...I'm ready now." Brent said to me with an anguished smile, slowly he placed the gun fully into my hand a rose it up to his temple.

My breathing hitched in the back of my throat before gasping at the final moment of what I was forced to do, rising up to my feet I tried keeping my hands from shaking so much with the gun pressed to his head.

"I love you so much Laura...with all my heart..I want to know that.." Brent said, no words can describe how excruciatingly painful my chest was aching from those familiar last words.

"I love you too Brent" I cried, I watched him close his eyes in patience for his time to end.

Breathing heavily, I clenched my eyes shut and pulled back the trigger, in an instant the gun fired and the sound echoed off the walls in the room.


	12. Burned to ashes

**(Simon's POV)**

We could all hear the gun go off from the room, Maddie's hands covered her mouth as tears began streaming from her eyes, out of compassion I grabbed and pulled her into a hug for comfort.

I couldn't hear what else was going on inside the room and that really worried me, looking to we made eye contact with each other.

"Aye Doc.." I motion my head for him to be the one and open the door, steady he turned the knob and slowly peered inside.

He turned to look at me and Negan for us to come in with him, with Maddie still beside I walked in and looked to see where Laura was standing.

Her back was to us as she looked down at Brents body, his eyes were partly opened as one bullet planted into his forhead. No sound came from Laura, she just stood there with no acknowledgement of us being there.

Looking around I couldn't see where the gun was, hoping that she had thrown it or placed somewhere.

"Laura...Laura Angel look at me." I said with worry in my voice, tilting her head to the side half her face showed to us.

I could see the tears that rolled down the tip of her chin, lips quivering as she began to turning around to face us.

My heart broke at the look of loss of hope and despair plastered all over her face, her hands were shaking uncontrollably but what caught my attention was she was still holding the gun and that gave me an awful feeling.

Gently pushing Maddie away towards Carson I began to make my way towards her, Laura's attention kept on going back to Brent and them to me.

"Angel...Angel baby look at me...I know what you're feeling right now, but please give me the gun.." I begged, her attention went back to me for a moment till her eyes moved over at Negan.

Instantly I saw the emotion change in her eyes as she raised the gun and aimed at him, of course Negan didn't do or saying anything but I looked and saw that he was a bit nervous.

Of course she's fucking beyond angry, none of us really know what's going through her head and what she'll might do.

"Laura don't do this.. I know you're angry at him but doing that won't change anything.. please Angel just hand me the gun." I begged again, her eyes moved back and forth from me to her.

"None of this would've happened if you had fucking listen to me...why didn't you go back for him?" She asked Negan, her eyes softened but still showed deep emotion.

"I should've sweetheart but I didn't and I'm so fucking sorry, trust me I know what the hell you're going through right now." Negan said in sincerity, Laura shook her head and glared at him.

"No..no you fucking don't... I had to kill the only family I had left and it's because of you.." she sobbed, when seeing her aim the gun away from Negan I felt relaxed but then my heart nearly stopped when she placed the gun into her mouth.

"Oh my God Laura don't please!" Maddie cried hysterically, Carson had to grab hold of her so she wouldn't run towards Laura in fear of her pulling the trigger on reaction.

"Sweetheart Laura look at me..look at me please. Don't do this please, trust me I know this fucking hurts. Believe me I know what it's like to lose someone you love, but doing this shit won't change anything it'll only hurt the people who care about you more." Negan said, in my surprise to hear him actually say something like that in front of other people besides me.

Laura's motion never changed, the gun trembling in her hand. I could see how much pain was in her eyes, the loss of Brent really put her over the edge.

"Angel he's right, this isn't what you want. It's going to be pain , but you'll get through this..we all will with you. Brent wouldn't want you to go out like this." I said, with each sentence I slowly made my way over to her.

I was within reach of grabbing the fun from her hands but I just placed it out in front, patiently waiting for her to make the right decision.

Looking at Negan and then to me Laura pulled back the gun from her mouth, her face showing regret at what she was trying to do to.

The gun fell down to the floor from how hard her body began trembling, she placed both her hands over her lips as she began to break down.

"I know Angel I know.." I said as I pulled her against my chest, her face buried into my shirt and began seeping with her tears.

Looking back over to Negan I see him staring at Laura with great remorse, he was never one to show emotion towards anyone in public but this was an exception.

Maddie managed to pull away from Carson and make her way over to us, coming up beside Laura she slipped her arms through us and hugged her.

Laura pulled her face away from me and looked at Maddie, their eyes met with each other for a moment before Laura quickly bear hugged her and broke apart in her arms.

Watching as both of them came down to the floor in each other's grasp, Maddie caressed her hand over Laura's head trying her best to soothe her pain all as well doing her best to keep it together.

"I'm so sorry Maddie.. I'm sorry!" She sobbed, her hands holding onto Maddie tightly.

"It's ok Laura... it's not your fault." Maddie assured, her eyes looking over to Brent's body and nearly double over but she quickly looked away and hugged Laura tighter.

I had to bite back from letting the tears form in my eyes, sighing I wiped at my face and turned to look at Negan.

**(Normal POV)**

Laura stayed pried in Maddie's arms, the tears blurred her vision that she couldn't see Simon nor Negan, so much was coming out of at once that Laura couldn't keep up with her emotions.

and Negans voice could be heard and then footsteps came over towards them, Simon had gently grabbed her up and away from Maddie. Her body still trembling and hands wiping at her eyes, pushing her hair away she could see his face clearly.

"Let's go get washed up and some food in you ok?" He said, Laura hesitated to respond when trying to not look in Brents direction.

Shaking her head Simon started guiding her out of the room, Negan helped Maddie up off the floor and gave her a comforting hug.

"Go help Simon with her and get yourself something to eat, later on we'll all meet up to say our peace." He said to her, Maddie nodded her head in agreement and made her way to follow behind Simon.

Looking back at he watched as he was preparing to clean up his body, using surgical scissors to tear off his bloodied clothes.

"I'm going to go freshen up and inform the men about the news, make sure that he's properly decent for later." He ordered, Carson looked at him and couldn't help but see the hurt in his eyes.

"Yes sir" he said then continued taking off the later article of clothes, Negan began walking out the room and heard the running of water start on from the sink.

Walking up the sets of stairs Negan made it up to his office without being stopped or distracted, it was until he shut the door and locked it behind that the built-up emotions in his chest we're starting to seeping through.

Going to his liquor storage he pulled out a bottle of Gin and a glass, pouring himself a drink and engulfed it in a single sip.

One drink turned into two, then four and then six, tears began forming at his eyes so he shoved the glass away and just started drinking directly from the bottle.

_I should've fucking listened to her, why did I have to be so God damn hard headed.. it's my fault that he got bit and I just fucking left like a coward. It's all my fault..all my God Damn Fault!_

So engulfed with anger at himself Negan chucked the bottle across the room and watched it shatter against the wall, leaning at his desk he couldn't stop the tears that began rolling down his face.

Using one hand he held himself to balance and used the other to cover his face, his body shook as he silently sobbed.

"I fucked up...I'm sorry kid..." He apologized.

On the next floor below Simon was leading Laura down to her room, Maddie was following behind in silence. Of course there were some of the Saviors in the hallway but they didn't stop or speak to them, from how they stared at them they have an idea of what happened.

Opening the door Laura walked into the room not even bothering to turn on the light, reaching at the wall Simon flipped the switch and turned it on.

"Alright Angel... Maddie's going to help you getting cleaned up and dressed. I'm going to go get us three something to eat from the cafeteria, I'll be back.. please watch her." Simon said pointing to Maddie before he left out the room and shutting the door behind him.

Maddie had somewhat calmed down from balling her eyes, going towards Laura's drawers she decided to find something to wear.

"Go ahead and take a shower while I find you an some clean clothes" she said, Laura nodded in response and walked over to the bathroom, she was about to close the door till Maddie spoke again.

"Leave the door open.. please.." she asked politely but in another meaning, Laura didn't bother to argue and just complied.

Stripping off her clothes Laura turned on the shower head and waited for the right temperature to her liking, Maddie took a glance when hearing the water go off and almost began to cry again when seeing the dark bruises on her back and arms.

All of those were from when she went out to go save Brent, after all that pain she'd gone through was only to end his life.

Turning away Maddie went back to looking for something to wear for her, when the steam started forming up in the ceiling Laura stepped in and closed the curtain.

The hot water soothed the bruises on her skin, placing her head directly underneath the shower head the water wet her hair and trailed down her face.

Just standing there like a lifeless statue and letting everything that happened slowly soak into her mind.

Brent was gone, the only family she loves and had left in this world be taken away. Having to experience the same heart wrenched scenario from almost six years ago, Laura didn't know if she can even go on with herself without Brent.

Clenching her hands into fists all the blame she felt on herself for him dying began to built up inside, lashing out she full on started punching at the shower tiled wall.

Continuously hitting at the same spot every time, the pain on her knuckles started to come but she kept going. As the tile shattered and broke off the wall it cut at her skin causing her hands to bleed and trail down her arms.

Maddie quickly ran inside the bathroom and pulled back the shower curtain, panicking when watching what Laura was doing to herself.

"Laura stop it, sweetie please stop it!" She screamed and rushed into the shower to pull her away from hurting anymore, not even caring about getting drenched in the process.

Laura allowed her to move her away from the wall and hold her body, her hands stinging badly and bleeding non-stop. But she didn't even care about the pain or the fact she was being pulled out the shower and bleeding all over her clean bathroom floor.

Brent was gone, he's dead and there's nothing that can fix or change that. Even after all the bullshit he's thrown at her or fights they've had she loved that asshole to death and would give anything to have him back.

"I hate myself Maddie, it's all my fault he's gone...it's all my fault." Laura began to cry, Maddie grabbed a towel hanging from the wall hanger and started drying off her body and putting pressure on her knuckles to stop from bleeding.

"Listen to right now, it's not your fault do you hear me. Things happen that we have no control over, he's gone and it fucking kills me. But I'm not going to let his death be my down fall and I'll be damned if you put blame on yourself." Maddie said determinedly, Laura looked at her with sadness, not knowing to accept her words.

Having her hold the towel on her hands Maddie grabbed another towel and wrapped it around Laura to cover her naked body, making sure it was held up she tended to her knuckles.

"I loved your brother Laura, hell he was the greatest thing to ever come into my life and now he's gone, I'm going to be hurting for a long time I'm not going to deny it but I'm gonna keep my promise to his last dying wish and that is to watch over you.

Because I'm not going to let you hang this over your head and make you do something that'll kill me even more and break Simons heart." She said while wrapping bandage sauge around her knuckles, Laura couldn't help but feel deeply touched at Maddie's heartfelt honesty.

Shaking her head Laura accepted her speech and demands, her tears still coming down her face.

"Ok...ok I'm sorry" she apologized and reach out to hug her, Maddie returned her hug and shared that private moment together.

**(Laura's POV)**

Dried off and dressed I sat on the bed staring down at my bandaged hands, Maddie was in the bathroom cleaning up the broken tile on the shower floor. Now that I'm finally calmed down I feel stupid for acting out like that, mentally I can hear Brents lecturing voice tell me to stop it and toughen up.

The sound of my door open startled me, looking over to see Simon holding three trays of food.

When his eyes looked over to me I tried to put on a face smile, placing the trays on the table he looked around to see where Maddie was.

"Where's Maddie at?" He asked, her voice called out from the bathroom answering his question.

Before he could tell me what he brought us his eyes went down to my knuckles, his brows raised in confusion and concern.

"What happened to your hands?" He asked, I looked away from him and tried to avoid his stern gaze.

I could hear his footsteps and felt his weight come beside me in the bed, his hand grabbed at my wrists to avoid touching the bandage.

"Laura what did you do to your hand, please Angel tell me." He begged, I tried to look him in the eyes and tell him but Maddie beat me to it

" She punched at the tile in the shower, cut her knuckles up really bad." She said then went over to the small garbage can and dumping the contents in the dustpan.

"Angel why did you do that?!" He asked demandingly, I couldn't help but flinch at the tone of his voice.

Placing my hands against my chest I looked at Simon with guilt in my eyes, his face softened when he saw me.

"I'm sorry Simon, I just acted out and didn't know what to do" I admitted, his hand let go of my wrists and went around to pull me close against his side.

I willingly leaned my head on his shoulder, just being like this with him made me begin to feel at ease. Simon rubbed up the side of my arm and kissed the top of my forhead, looking over at Maddie I could see a smile tug in her lips when seeing his gesture.

"I'm going to go shower and get ready, Si are you alright with her by yourself?"Maddie asked while as she claimed her food tray from the table.

"Yeah we'll be ok, Negan said at quarter to six we're all meeting in lunch hall." He informed, nodding her head Maddie smiled at me before exciting my room.

The room fell silent now, I decided to go grab my food tray from the table but Simon beat me to it and brought it to the bed.

" Here you go Angel..." He said with a smile, grabbing from his hands we started eating our food.

There was an awkward feel to the air, I couldn't think of anything to say or talk about.

_How can you start up a conversation after having your brother die?_

"So..Negan wants to know what do you want to do with Brents body." Simon said out of nowhere, it really caught me off guard.

Placing the food tray on the bedside I sat in silence to really come up with a answer, this is something not even me nor Brent were ever prepare for.

Of course we discussed if one of us would meet our demise the other will have a say in what to do with our body, I told Brent that if I were to die before him that I'd want him to take my body back to our home and bury me next to our parents.

Of course that wouldn't have been possible but he still promised it would be done, Brent never really gave me an idea of what to do if he'd die.

_You know where I'd want to be if I knew it would be my last day on Earth?... That old tower we found a few months ago, just looking at that sunset over the horizon one last time would make me a happy dead man._

Simon looked over at me and saw tear roll off my chin, reaching out his hand cupped my face and wiped at the tears in my eyes.

"Hey...if you don't want to talk about this now..." He began saying but I shook my head and grabbed his hand.

" No it's ok... I was just thinking of what I want to do... I want to cremate his body." I said, his expression didn't seem to change for the next few seconds but he scooted closer and side hugged me.

"If that's what you want Angel...ok we'll go tell Dr Carson and Negan when Maddie gets back." He said, sighing with content I closed my eyes and leaned against him.

"This doesn't feel real...no one deserves to be going through all of this." I said with a raspy voice, Simon sighed and pulled me closer almost straddling in his lap.

"I know Angel..but things will get better." He said assuringly, looking in his eyes I pressed my lips against his.

Or course this is probably not the right time to be doing this, but I really need to feel something else right now it her then pain and depression.

Kissing Simon makes me feel uplifted and like nothing else matters, but even just closing my eyes I can still see his face.

I won't ever be able to see his face anymore, or hear his sarcastic attitude and words of older brother wisdom. Even after all the fights we've had and no matter how much thing's happened between us there's no one that can replace my brother.

Simon pulled away when I began shaking I'm his arms, concern in his eyes when I tried hard not to fall apart.

"I'm sorry Simon... I'm so sorry" I apologized not only to him, but to Maddie, my parents and to myself.

Simon placed his hand on the back of my head and pulled me close to his chest, slowly rocking himself to soothe help soothe me.

"It's ok Angel, it's ok." His voice carried, I could feel something wet hit against my hair but I didn't mind at all.

(Normal POV)

Negan told everyone to meet up in the yard, Brents body was prepared and laid out in the wooden pannels that prepared.

The news about what happened didn't take to long to spread around, Aarat was devastated about what Laura had to go through and for the loss of Maddie's love, she was about the last person to show up when seeing Laura and Simon together with Maddie.

Laura was listening to what Maddie was saying when seeing Aarat coming towards them, her arms spread out open ready to give a hug.

"I'm so sorry Laura." She said with tears swelling in her eyes, Laura accepted her hug and kissed her cheek.

Maddie came up beside and hugged them both, Simon stood behind watching as all three of them embraced each other in grief and heartbreak.

Pulling away from their hug Laura felt a soft tap on her shoulder, turning around and surprised to see Negans wives all together coming to her.

"Laura...I just..we want to say we're sorry for Brent. And if there's anything you need, we're here for you." Sherry said, Laura gave a soft smile and placed her hand over Sherry's.

"Thank you." She said in gratitude, Sherry was about to say something when Frances said to start heading over to where Negan requested them to be.

When they all started walking away Laura saw Amber being the last one behind, their eyes met for a moment till she looked away. She couldn't help but notice it looked like she was crying, not bothering to question it Negans voice called to everyone's attention.

"Thank you for coming to pay your respects,last night we lost a good man, probably the best damn good Savior I've met and had the pleasure to work with.

Brent was just a young kid when we found him and Laura, but I got to see that kid grow into a decent man. Shit...is it me or is it fucking hot out here?" He asked with a nervous cough, Laura could tell that making this speech was taking allot out of him.

Walking over Laura placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him, Negan looked at her and saw her smile softly.

"Thank you Negan, I'll take it from here." She said, he nodded with a grunt before stepping aside.

Laura wasn't really prepared to make a speech, of course you can't really expect anyone to in a situation like this. But for some reason she felt like it was the right thing to do, she didn't want everyone to just remember Brent as just a Savior.

"Thank again for coming, I know this isn't the first time we've had to say out goodbyes to people we lost. As many of you know Brent was a great guy, he took his job as A Savior seriously and always saw the good in people...

When we first met Negan me and him were on our own, we lost everything we loved and despite not knowing what to do Brent never gave up hope, it fucking hurts knowing that he's gone. He was more than my brother, he was my best friend, my guardian...the only family I had left and now he's gone.

That's why I'm going to find the people who were responsible for attacking our outpost and they're going to pay for what they did. They're gonna pay, Brents death will have justice I promise you that." She said with determination and tears on her face, looking to Negan she nodded her head.

Negan motioned for Carson to begin pouring the lighter fluid underneath the wooden pannels, Laura watched worth shakey breaths as the liquid was being dosed all into the wood.

When finished Carson had a long paper stick and a box of matches, coming to Laura he looked at her with remorse and handed the items in his hands to her.

Laura took them from him and began to light the paper stick, her hands were shaking the entire team but she managed to light the paper without problem.

Watching fire form on the stick Laura walked over the the wood pannel and looked down at Brents body, the dark depression was slowly coming back but her mind weilded over it.

_Brent wouldn't want me to end my life in pain, I'm going make sure who ever caused his death will suffer._

With a last far well Laura threw the stick into the liquid puddle and watched as the entire wooden pannel underneath engulf in flames.

Everyone watched in silence as Brents body began to cover in flames, Maddie was hugging Aarat while crying softly.

Simon came up besides Laura and placed his arm around her shoulder, she didn't flinch or say a word but just watch the fire engulf everything.

Negan stood there and watched as Laura stare at the flames, tears streaming down her face but she didn't look upset anymore, there was only vengeance in her eyes.


	13. Ranking up

_**(Normal POV)**_

Everyone was told to go back to their regular duties the next day, despite everything that happened it was like people we're acting like it didn't.

Aarat was doing a route check from the damage last night with Dwight and the others, Simon and Negan were doing daily inspection of everything.

There was no sign of Laura anywhere and She didn't come to line up that very morning, Simon knew where Laura was at he just wanted her to have some space.

Laura sat on the lonely floor against the bedroom wall, her eyes red and puffy from lack of sleep and crying her heart out the whole night.

The whiskey bottle she won from Aarat was empty and discarded on the ground beside her, it was wrong to be drinking her feelings but it was the only thing she could do to fill the depression.

Rubbing at her face Laura sighed in agitation, she spent the past four hours staring up at the old picture frame placed on top of Brents dresser across the other room.

It was the only thing he had of them physically when they came here, it was a picture taken of them standing together after Brent's Graduation.

Despite that day of joking around and being glad that he finished highschool, deep down Laura was sad to know that her big brother was leaving home and starting his new life on his own without her.

Biting down her lip Laura fought the urge to cry again, Lord knows if she could even produce any tears at this point.

Before even thinking of getting up off the ground Brent's bedroom door opened, figuring it was Simon coming in considering he followed her here last night but turned out to be Amy.

"I figure you would be in here..." She said calmly then shut the door behind her, Laura watched as she looked around the room and then eyed the empty whiskey bottle discarded on the ground.

Just from the look in her eyes Laura turned her head down in shame, Amy went over kneeled down in front of her and grabbed at her face with both hands.

"Laura... you're better than this... drinking will not make the pain go away believe I've tried...Brent wouldn't want you drowning your sorrow this way." She said, Laura looked her in the eyes and frowned.

"It's better than wanting to die... I'm tired of the fucking pain..I want it to stop.." she said while choking back a son in her throat, wiping at the tears forming with the back of her hand.

Amy started to feel pitty for Laura and pulled her into a hug, there was no responsive movement coming from Laura.

"It will sweetheart..you just have to give it time." Amy said, Laura couldn't help but feel annoyed by that answer and began to pull away from her.

Getting up on her feet Laura looked down at Amy and shook her head.

" Time isn't going to make me feel better, is time going to look for those fuckers who ambushed us or bring my back Brent?!" She questioned with venom, Amy looked at her and kept herself composed to Lauras emotional outburst.

"No it won't, but with it you can learn something and gain from it." Amy said, Laura didn't know how to respond and just looked at the wall.

Wiping the remains of tears on her face grabbed at the picture frame on the dresser and walked out the room without another word, leaving Amy there alone to reminisce what just happened.

Clutching at the frame in hand Laura went on quest to look for Negan to have a serious talking to, after listening to what Amy had said a sign of an epiphany came to her mind.

Making it down the corridors she came across David and Dwight coming from routine checks, rushing over Laura tugged on Dwight's arm for his attention.

"Aye Laura is there something I can.." he began to ask but was cut off by her.

"Negan where is he I need to talk to him?" She asked with agitation, eyeing him and David.

"He. He should be in his office, but I think he's busy with something.. If you want I can.." Dwight tried saying he could radio him for her to talk but Laura walked away and began heading towards the stairs.

Meanwhile Simon was just finished talking with Negan about the next run for collecting from the other group when a loud knock came from the office door, before Negan could be given a chance to ask who it was Laura came bursting through without a care of being granted entrance.

" Simon can you please leave, I need to talk to Negan alone." Laura said while not even looking straight at him instead of Negan, trying to think of something to say to he stood there in silence.

"Now!" She demanded more assertive this time, from the rosey color to her cheeks and her appearance both him and Negan could tell she was tipsy.

Not wanting to anger her any further Simon obeyed and stepped out the room, making eye contact with Negan and nodding his head before closing the door behind him.

Lauras breathing fast and rigidity, placing both her hands on top of the desk she looked at Negan with determination.

"We need to find out who was it that ambushed you guys out there." She stated, Negan stared at her in silence before pouring himself a drink and taking a sip.

"We're already looking into that sweetheart, from what Dwight and Simon figured out it's from another group not to far from us indicating they've been eyeing us for awhile and waited for a moment of attack." He said, Laura eyed him taking another sip of his drink and pouring another glass.

From the look of it being half filled he's been drinking for a while now, she didn't even notice the shattered glass in the corner of the room till glancing around.

"Ok what about tracks did anyone find a trace of where they could've gone or retreated to their hideout?" She questioned,Negans lack of not answering right away was starting to irritate her.

Being to busy drinking his booze, he was about to pour another glass before Laura snatched it off his desk and held it tight in her hand.

"Take this fucking seriously, you and your men just got ambushed and you're not taking serious actings to this!" she yelled, Negan shot up from his desk and glared at her.

"I am taking serious actings to this shit, I've been having Aarat and everyone on their ass finding out where the fuck these people are if you weren't locking yourself away and moping you'd know this shit!" He boomed in anger, not taking into consideration to how hurtful his words affected Laura.

Outraged she threw the bottle at Negan but to his luck he moved out of the way in time before it hit at his desk chair and shatter all over.

"What the fucking shit Laura?!" He yelled and looked over at her wide eyed.

"My brother just fucking died you asshole, how fuck am I supposed to be. He died protecting you and it got him killed!" She screamed while pointing at him in fit anger her face scrunching up in frustration and tears swelling with tears.

They both stared at each other heavily with emotions, Negan started to feel shitty from his choice of words earlier.

Of course he knew that she would be a fucking mess after what happened, hell he was the same way losing the most imp thing to him before all this.

"I want to take Brent's place as second in command." Laura stated in all seriousness, Negan was caught off guard to her demand then shook his head.

"No that's not happening Laura, I got all the help we need to look for these people." He said then started walking past her to grab a towel off the dresser to clean his chair.

"I want to look for those fuckers who caused all this , I'm not asking Negan I'm begging you please let me help." She said while looking back at him, Negan couldn't help but fight the thought of considering her request but remembered what he promised Brent before he died.

"I can't Laura, Brent made me promise to watch over you and ..."before he could finish his last words something was thrown and barely missed his head and booked at the wall in front of him.

"Brent's not fucking here!" She screamed , her hands balled into fists and tears slipping down her face.

Looking down a the floor Negan saw what she had thrown, the broken frame laid there while the glass was scattered all over and covering the photo it held.

"If you're not going to let me help find these assholes then I'll do it myself." She stated then stomped out the room, Simon was standing at the door when Laura shoved passed him.

"Laura.. Laura..Angel wait!" He yelled while running after her, Negan stood there and continued to look down at the picture.

Laura looked so young and happy hugging Brent, now that last happiness she had left was gone.

_Fucking shit...I gotta make this right._


	14. Astray

_**(Normal POV)**_

Laura stormed down the stairwell with Simon trying to catch up behind , her blood was bumping with fuming rage from talking to Negan.

Groaning in frustration she punched at the brick wall besides her, not caring that the surface scratched at her knuckles in the process.

Simon managed to catch up and stop her, his hand grabbed her shoulder and made her turn around.

"Angel just calm down and look at me, whatever your thinking of doing just listen to me for a second." He said, Laura shook her head and pushed away from him

"How can he just sit here and expect me to do nothing while the fuckers responsible are still out there , fucking drinking and sitting on his lazy ass while everyone's cleaning up the mess he caused!" She screamed in aggravation, nothing but anger radiating off her body.

Her mind was swirling with mixed emotions and blurry, it was as if she was spinning around in circles on a ride and it wouldn't stop.

"Laura... Laura are you alright?" Simon spoke to her but to Laura it sounded disoriented ,her body began swaying back and forth without her realizing.

"Simon...I don't..I don't.." Laura tried spitting out her words but everything started going black.

"Laura.. Laura!" Simon's voice echoed in the pitch darkness before she went unconscious.

_**(Simon's POV)**_

After Laura blacked out I panicked down to Carson's office with her in my arms, she didn't look good at all and when I touched her she began to feel really warm.

When I got there Carson was talking to someone, without even caring I barged in and ran over to place Laura's body on the medical bed.

"Simon don't just...oh my goodness what happened?! Carson exclaimed when seeing het complexion, finally I noticed that who he was talking to was Maddie.

Nothing about it seemed odd about her being there so I didn't bother to question it, she rushed over to Laura and felt her clammy face.

"Oh my God Simon what happened, she burning up!" She said with deep concern, I didn't even know how to answer with having a damn clue.

" I have a slightest idea, I was chasing after her when she stormed out of Negans office and then she fainted in my arms.

Carson stepped in between me and Maddie to begin feeling Laura's temperature, pulling out this Doppler he placed the end of it underneath her shirt to hear her heartbeat.

My protective ego spiked a bit when seeing him do this but I tried pushing it to the side, right now my worry and attention is on finding out if Laura's alright.

_**What if she's sick...fuck don't even think that!. She's fine there was no sign of scratches or bites after what happened.**_

"Her heartbeat is steady, you said she fainted how long ago?" Carson asked, it took me a second to answer while getting lost in thought.

"Just ten minutes ago, she was pissed off and somewhat drunk." I said, it was obvious when Laura barged into Negans office that she was I could smell it.

Shaking his head Carson went on over to the cabinet on the other end of the room, Maddie was pushing the stray hairs away from Laura's face.

"Do you know if she's eaten at all since the incident?" I asked her, it took her minute to respond.

"I don't know...last time she ate was before the cremation." She said, shaking my head I rubbed my hands in frustration.

_**God damn it Laura...**_

The sound of Carson's footsteps came up beside me, when I glanced back I saw that he had bottle and a garbage bin in hand.

"Simon I need you to hold this for me, Maddie tilt her head up a bit for me please." He said while handing me the bin in hand, watching as she did as told Carson twisted off the cap to the bottle and placed it at Laura's mouth.

It took a second for him to get her to take a few sips of whatever was in there, her face started scrunching up in discomfort and then she began to turn over suddenly.

"Simon.. Simon place the bin beside her now" Carson hurriedly said, quickly I did that and watched as Laura began throwing up.

Her face was right in the bin, the sound of her wretching sounded bad and I tried patting her back to soothe her.

"Let it out Angel..it's ok we're right here...the fuck you give her doc?" I asked Carson.

"Emetic, don't worry it's not harmful. It's just to help her get all the alcohol out of her stomach since she hasn't eaten at all. " He said while putting the bottle away, it took about a few more minutes till Laura finally stopped throwing up.

Placing the bin away from her face I could see her eyes were watery and a tiny bit of snot on her face from all that heaving, Maddie went to grab some napkins to help wipe off her face.

"There you are, feeling any better Angel?" I asked them pushed her away away from her face, she shook her head no and I sighed.

"Here you go sweetie, close your mouth for me." Maddie came back over and began wiping away after nose and eyes, she sounded like mother cleaning off her babies face.

Finishing up Maddie went over to the waste bin and threw away the used tissue paper, Carson went over and spoke to hear again.

" Like I said before... there's not a hundred percent chance its accurate, but if you're still feeling strange and it hasn't started yet come back and take another." I could hear what they were saying but I don't think they realize that I can, glancing over I could see Maddie nodding in response.

Turning my attention back to Laura she still seemed to be out of it, her eyes barely even fighting to keep open while her hand held onto mine.

"Tell me how bad I look right now..." She mumbled, even with her hair being messy and looking like she just did a marathon she still looked beautiful in my eyes.

"Like a fallen Angel...who got run over." I teased, my attempted joke succeeded when her lip quirked into a smile.

"Fuck you..." She sighed and then tried getting up, only to lay back down with her hands on her head.

"Oh my fucking head hurts." She whimpered in pain, gently as possible I started to pick her up in my arms.

**_(Normal POV)_**

Carson suggest that Laura should get some rest and afterwards try to get something in her stomach, Maddie volunteered to go with Simon to help Laura.

Walking out with her in his arms Simon headed on down to the hallway towards the Savior's hall, Laura was half awake laying her head on his shoulder.

"You're starting to get grays in your mustache..." She mumbled against his ear, he looked down at her and then to Maddie.

She couldn't help but smile at Laura's disoriented out burst, he chuckled and kissed at her forehead. He knew that after some rest she won't even remember what happen or had said.

What he overheard back there was still turning inside of Simons head, that Maddie didn't know if she was pregnant or not.

_**Does Arat know...Laura? Did Brent even get to before... **_he thought.

Maddie opened the door once they made it to Lauras room, it was still in the same condition as she left it the day before the ambush, her blanket was thrown over when Arat rushed out to get ready that day. Sighing Simon placed her down on the bed gently, her body slowly stretched out and turned over on the left side.

"Laura sit up for a second so I can help you into something clean." Maddie said while coming over with a over shirt she pulled out from her drawers, Simon stepped beside and held onto the shirt.

"Let her be for now to get some rest, meantime lets get her something from downstairs and bring back." he suggested, Maddie looked at him and then back down at her feet.

Nodding in agreement she put the shirt at the end of the bed, Laura laid there slowly falling to sleep a Simon pulled the blacked from off the floor and put it over her body. He caressed the side of her face and a soft a smile tugged at her lips.

"We're going to go get you something to eat for when you wake up ok squirt." he said, Laura nodded in response and shut her eyes.

"Thank you Brent..."she lulled out, catching Simon off guard.

Maddie looked at her than to him, figuring that Laura didn't know who she was talking to or what she was saying. Not wanting to correct her Simon just sighed and tucked the blanket around her comfortably and began heading out with Maddie.

As the door shut behind them Maddie looked at Simon with concern in her eyes, they both know that her minds not in the right place right now.

"I'm starting to worry about her Simon...she called you Brent." she said, he looked at her and rubbed at his temple.

"Yeah...but no one can say what's going on inside her head right now. Come on lets go get her something to eat." he said and then began walking towards the stairs.

Throughout the walk to the kitchen and grabbing stuff to eat they didn't exchange words, some people asked if everything was alright with Laura and such. Simon told them it was ok and kept it at that, he didn't want to tell anyone about her business because it wasn't there place to butt in.

Grabbing everything that seemed right to get Laura Simon and Maddie exchanged there points and headed on back up to her room, about half way up the stairs Simon couldn't help but bite his tongue anymore and finally questioned Maddie.

"Is it true...could you be pregnant?" he asked, Maddie face shifted instantly and she pushed him against with one hand while the other was occupied.

"You better not say a word about this...not to me or to anyone you hear me." she threatened and pointed a finger to his face, he could see the mixed up emotions forming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Maddie, I didn't mean to be personal I just couldn't help but overhear...does anyone else know?" he questioned quietly, her faced soften and she stepped away from him.

Tapping her foot he tried to look anywhere else but him trying to come up with what to say, the corner of her eyes started filling up with tears.

"No...no one knows, the only one that knows there's a possibility was Brent." she said upsetting like , Simon watched as tears ran down her face .

"We were thinking about it...he was the one that suggested...that how much he wanted a kid..of course I said that it was crazy to even consider bringing a baby into this world right now. But he was so dead set on wanting a child, he told me that no matter the cost or whatever it took he'll do anything for me and our child...I wanted to surprise him with that there's was a chance I was...but now he's not..."Maddie tried explaining but she became overwhelm and started weeping, Simon pulled her to him for comfort, her body shook against him as she cried.

"I don't know what to do Simon...I can't go through this without him..." she sniffled, Simon rubbed at her back and looked down at her.

"Don't worry sweetheart, everything's going to work out. You have friends and family who are here for you. Laura doesn't know does she?" he questioned ,she shook her head no in response.

He tilted her chin up to look her in the eyes, her blue eyes enhanced from the redness around them.

"You're going to have to tell her eventually, don't you think having her know would make her feel so much better?" He questioned, sniffling, she nodded and wiped at her eyes.

"Ok..but not until I'm a hundred percent sure if I am." She said, nodding in response Simon patted her back and guide them both up the stairs.

They were halfway down the hall from the room till something odd caught Simon's attention, the door was wide open.

Now he knew for a fact that when him and Maddie left the room the closed it behind them.

"You shut that behind us when we left right?" He asked , Maddie nodded yes and looked at him confusingly.

Handing her the tray from his hand Simon rushed over to see what's going on, when he looked inside he was met with the room in a disarray. Everything was tossed out from Laura's drawers and bed empty.

Panicked Simon ran inside to see if she was still inside somewhere, looking inside her bathroom, closet and even underneath her bed she was nowhere.

Maddie hurried over and looked inside to see Simon throwing stuff around and in a panic.

"What happened... Where'd she go?" She asked in confusion and worry.

"I don't fucking know she was just... wait listen..." Simon barked back in anger and then stopped when a familiar sound started going off, both of them went quiet to hear the gate siren go off.

"Someone jumped over the gate!", a voice yelled from down the hall, a few people ran passed the door.

Instantly they looked at each other and knew who it was.

"Laura!" They said at once and then dropped everything to run out the room and follow the others.


End file.
